After Russians illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine February 2022 (which has a complex and debated background), those who argued for unarmed and nonviolent resistance were put under pressure due to massive support for militarism and militarisation, especially among western countries, as the only way to counter the violence carried out by Russia towards its neighbour country Ukraine.
However, scholars and activist, with a concrete experience of nonviolent civil resistance from different contexts, as well as interest for research on the same topics, described alternatives to military violence and argued for active nonviolent civil resistance.
One such analysis were written by four prominent scholars and activists and published in Waging Nonviolence. These scholars and activists were Craigh Brown, Jørgen Johansen, Majken Jul Sørensen and Stellan Vinthagen whose research orientations are described below:
Craig Brown is a Sociology departmental affiliate at UMass Amherst. He is an Assistant Editor of the Journal of Resistance Studies and board member of the European Peace Research Association. His PhD assessed the methods of resistance during the 2011 Tunisian Revolution.
Jørgen Johansen is a freelance academic and activist with 40 years of experience in more than 100 countries. He serves as Deputy Editor for the Journal of Resistance Studies and coordinator of the Nordic Nonviolence Study Group, or NORNONS.
Majken Jul Sørensen received her doctorate for the thesis “Humorous Political Stunts: Nonviolent Public Challenges to Power” from the University of Wollongong, Australia in 2014. Majken came to Karlstad University in 2016 but continued as an Honorary Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Wollongong between 2015 and 2017. Majken has been a pioneer in researching humour as a method in nonviolent resistance to oppression and has published dozens of articles and several books, including Humor in Political Activism: Creative Nonviolent Resistance.
Stellan Vinthagen is a professor of sociology, a scholar-activist, and the Inaugural Endowed Chair in the Study of Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Resistance at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he directs the Resistance Studies Initiative.
The article was also circled among other scholars and activists, and signed by approximately fifty other scholars and activists from different parts of the world. The article was also signed by the founder and chair of the board of Another Development Foundation – Ingvar Rönnbäck.
The article at Waging Nonviolence, with signatures, is possible to read below.