Introducing the Strategies of Resistance Data Project
| Published date | 01 May 2020 |
| Date | 01 May 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0022343319880246 |
| Subject Matter | Special Data Features |
Special Data Feature
Introducing the Strategies of Resistance
Data Project
Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham
Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland & Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
Marianne Dahl
Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
Anne Fruge
´
PRR
Abstract
This article introduces the Strategies of Resistance Data Project (SRDP), a global dataset on organizational behavior
in self-determination disputes. This dataset is actor-focused and spans periods of relative peace and violence in self-
determination conflicts. By linking tactics to specific actors in broader campaigns for political change, we can better
understand how these struggles unfold over time, and the conditions under which organizations use conventional
politics, violent tactics, nonviolent tactics, or some combination of these. SRDP comprises 1,124 organizations
participating in movements for greater national self-determination around the world, from 1960 to 2005. Despite
the fact that few self-determination movements engage in mass nonviolent campaigns, SRDP shows that more
organizations employ nonviolent tactics at some point in time (about 40%) than employ violence (about 30%).
Many organizations switch among tactics or use both at the same time. This dataset will allow analysts to examine the
use of different combinations of tactics and patterns of change. We compare the data with the most-used dataset on
nonviolence, the NAVCO 2.0 Data Project, to demonstrate what we gain by employing an organization-level dataset
on tactics. We present a set of descriptive analyses highlighting the utility of the SRDP, including an examination of
tactic switching. We show that more organizations change from violence to nonviolence than the reverse – challen-
ging the widely held assumption that organizations ‘resort’ to violence. SRDP allows scholars to examine organiza-
tional choices about tactics, and trends in these tactics, with much greater nuance.
Keywords
civil resistance, nonviolence, organizational behavior
The recent use and, in some cases, highly visible success
of mass nonviolent campaigns has focused attention on
nonviolent resistance around the world. Critical atten-
tion has been called to the use and efficacy of such
resistance campaigns (Chenoweth & Stephan, 2011).
Yet, mass protests are only one of many tactics employed
by opposition movements. Many smaller-scale tactics,
such as sit-ins, boycotts, and instances of self-harm (such
as self-immolation) are also used by dissidents seeking
political change.
At times, these nonviolent tactics occur in parallel
with violence. In other instances, opposition actors
exclusively use nonviolent tactics to press their claims.
Despite the frequent characterization of opposition
actors as either ‘rebels’ or ‘terrorists’ in most large-N
conflict datasets, many opposition organizations shift
Corresponding author:
kgcunnin@umd.edu
Journal of Peace Research
2020, Vol. 57(3) 482–491
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343319880246
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