Research Talk Bringing Down Dictators: No Guns Required

Speaker: Margherita Belgioioso, Brunel University London
Introduction: Francesco Strazzari, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

Our politics, culture and even our conception of history focus on episodes of violence. Nonviolent struggles and their effects are often forgotten. However, nonviolent resistance is one of the most powerful tools for political change that’s out there.  In this talk Margherita Belgioioso will address 4 established social science insights about unarmed dissent, and present you the findings of a research co-authored with Harvard Professor Erica Chenoweth that shows how even civil resistance movements that mobilize far less than 5% of the population can succeed.

Margherita Belgioioso is Lecturer in International Relations and International Security at the Department of Politics and History, Brunel University London. Her research interests lie in the area of international security, and political violence. She focuses specifically on the choice and consequences of the use of terrorist tactics and violent and nonviolent mass dissident tactics by non-state organizations.