Reference
2021
Glossary of Civil Resistance
A Resource for Study and Translation of Key Terms
By Hardy Merriman, Nicola Barrach-Yousefi
Get the paperback
Available wherever books are sold. Any profit goes back into new research and writing workshops.
Buy the paperback
Download the free PDF
About the book
The field of civil resistance is dedicated to understanding how people can fight for rights, freedom, and justice, without the use of violence. This glossary provides definitions and expansive commentary on civil resistance terminology to support sharing of lessons learned and research across different languages. It is intended to support translation of materials, but non-translators will also find value in it, as a great deal can be learned about the concepts in the field that underlie each term.
Written for
Activists
About the authors
Hardy Merriman
For over 20 years, Hardy Merriman has focused on pro-democracy movements fighting authoritarian governments and democratic backsliding around the world.
He is former President & CEO of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC); led the Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave project as a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council; served as a senior technical advisor to the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Powered by the People program; and was an adjunct lecturer at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
His recent publications include Hold the Line: A Guide to Defending Democracy (2026); Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence (HOPE) (2024), Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave: A Playbook for Countering the Authoritarian Threat (2023), and We Need People Power to Address a World in Peril (2023).