Nonviolent Civil Disobedience: Creating Legitimate Regime Change in Iran; Monograph

摘要

War, diplomacy, and economic sanctions are three cornerstones of strategy that have successfully coerced rogue regimes to capitulate. Now may be the time to develop a new method of spurring regime change. During the 20th century, several nations successfully transitioned from authoritarian rule to democracy. These transitions were hastened by nonviolent civil disobedience. Although nonviolent civil disobedience is a common form of political action throughout the world, many political observers do not understand its nature and often underestimate its effect. Nonviolence is built on three key components: mobilization, strategy, and ethics. By examining case studies it is possible to identify the importance of each component in a nonviolent civil disobedience campaign. South Africa's nonviolence campaign demonstrated the power that individual groups possess when they come together as one against a regime. South Africa's minority population was successfully mobilized and the African National Congress used protests, strikes, and boycotts to undermine the economy. When the economy collapsed, so did the regime that had profited from the corrupt handling of economic affairs. South African protestors were able to bolster worldwide support when they convinced other nations that apartheid was immoral. The successful overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos can be attributed to the same components of nonviolent civil disobedience. Like South Africa, several individual groups came together to protest the Marcos regime when Marcos declared martial law to avoid defeat in a democratic election. Philippine protestors used boycotts and strikes to tear apart the economy. When the military realized that Marcos no longer had control of the population, it disavowed the regime. The author compares these case studies to the conditions in Iran and Iran's 1979 Revolution to assess whether nonviolent civil disobedience could be organized in Iran with some likelihood of successfully replacing the regime.