Quotes from Gene Sharp

There should be no romanticism that international public opinion or even international diplomatic and economic pressure can defeat a coup without determined and strong defense by the attacked society itself

Heavy repression against the nonviolent defenders may also arouse stronger international opposition to the coup and mobilize inernational opinion and diplomatic and economic action against the putschists

It is our contention, to be explored later in more detail, that political defiance, or nonviolent struggle, is the most powerful means available to those struggling for freedom.

Resistane violence may help unite the putschists' basic supporters and military forces against the ?anti coup? defenders

For example, disciplined courageous nonviolent resistance in face of the dictators' brutalities may induce unease, disaffection, unreliability, and in extreme situations even mutiny among the dictators' own soldiers and population.

In nearly all cases, resistance must continue to drive dictators out of power. Success is most often determined not by negotiating a settlement but through the wise use of the most appropriate and powerful means of resistance available. It

Three of the most important factors in determining to what degree a government's power will be controlled or uncontrolled therefore are: (1) the relative desire of the populace to impose limits on the government's power; (2) the relative strength of the subjects' independent organizations and institutions to withdraw collectively the sources of power; and (3) the population's relative ability to withhold their consent and assistance.

Engage in friendly creative communication with the functionaries and troops serving the putschists while continuing resistance. Explain to them the reasons for the defense struggle, affirm the absence of ny intended violence against them, seek to undermine the reliability, and try to induce them to be helpful to the defenders.

At other times, agents provocateurs are placed within resistance groups to instigate or even commit acts of violence in order to supportthr charge that the resisters are using violence

If, despite repression, the sources of power can be restricted or severed for enough time, the initial results may be uncertainty and confusion within the dictatorship. That is likely to be followed by a clear weakening of the power of the dictatorship. Over time, the withholding of the sources of power can produce the paralysis and impotence of the regime, and in severe cases, its disintegration. The dictators' power will die, slowly or rapidly, from political starvation.

It's a nonsense assumption that you can get rid of terrorism with war. Terrorism is taking the lives of innocent people to gain your objective. War is basically the same thing on a larger scale.

Dictators are not in the business of allowing elections that could remove them from their thrones.

By placing confidence in violent means, one has chosen the very type of struggle with which the oppressors nearly always have superiority.

Nonviolent struggle is the most powerful means available to those struggling for freedom.