Preventing Mass Atrocities

From a Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance

By Peter Ackerman, Hardy Merriman

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Preventing Mass Atrocities

About the book

Events of the last decade demand new approaches to atrocity prevention that are adaptable, innovative and independent of a state-centered doctrine. With the aim of reducing risk factors such as civil war, we argue for a new normative framework called The Right to Assist (RtoA), which could strengthen international coordination and support for nonviolent civil resistance campaigns demanding rights, freedom and justice against non-democratic rule.

RtoA would: 1) engage a wide range of stakeholders such as NGOs, states, multilateral institutions and others; 2) bolster various factors of resilience against state fragility; and 3) incentivize opposition groups to sustain commitment to nonviolent strategies of change. The adoption of this doctrine can reduce the probability of violent conflict that significantly heightens atrocity risk, while increasing the prospects for constructive human development.

Also in

Arabic, French, Spanish

Written for

Scholars

About the authors

Peter Ackerman

Peter Ackerman was the Founding Chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) and co-author of the books A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict (Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press, 2001) and Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: The Dynamics of People Power in the Twentieth Century (Praeger, 1994). He was Series Editor and Principal Content Advisor for the two-part Emmy-nominated PBS-TV series, A Force More Powerful, which charts the history of civilian-based resistance in the 20th century. He was also Executive Producer of several other films on civil resistance, including the PBS-TV documentary, Bringing Down a Dictator, on the fall of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, which received a 2003 Peabody Award and the 2002 ABC News VideoSource Award of the International Documentary Association. Dr. Ackerman served as co-chair of the International Advisory Committee of the United States Institute for Peace and was on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Atlantic Council.

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).