I’ve often written about the futility of our military approach in Iraq. But my friends at the Metta Center issued this helpful reminder that in most cases, violence is worthless for terrorists as well:
“Their study of terrorist groups, guerrilla movements, and nonviolent resistance movements found that nonviolent resistance movements have achieved partial or full success nearly 90% of the time, compared to 50% for guerilla warfare. It is based on the newly-created Nonviolent and Violent Conflicts and Outcomes (”NAVCO”) dataset, which compiles data on the characteristics of various violent and nonviolent insurgency campaigns and attempts to systematically explain their outcomes.”
Quote Source: Study finds nonviolence more effective than violence – The Metta Center
Part of the reason that force isn’t a particularly useful tool for either side in a civil war is that force is often used as punishment. Punishment only works if the party being punished acknowledges it is in the wrong. More often the other party sees it as a fresh provocation justifying their next attack.
It’s nice to see some systematic studies that show that persuasion and civil disobedience do get the job done more often than simply blowing things up.
Filed under: nonviolence, terrorism
