Humanitarian Intervention: A Forum (Page 12)

Stephen Zunes

Scores of repressive governments have been toppled in recent decades. The vast majority of these overthrows came about not from foreign invasion or even armed revolution but through massive nonviolent action. Dramatic "people power" uprisings brought down the Communist regimes in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, overthrew Southeast Asian strongmen like Marcos and Suharto, and ousted military juntas from Bangladesh to Bolivia.

Other nonviolent prodemocracy movements engaged in more protracted struggles that eventually forced dramatic reforms in countries as varied as Poland, South Korea, South Africa, Kenya and Chile. The failure of similar rebellions to succeed in other places may have had less to do with any inherent weaknesses in the tactics of nonviolent action than with the failure of these movements to obtain necessary support.

For example, starting in 1990, Albanian Kosovars challenged Serbian rule through one of the most impressive large-scale nonviolent campaigns in history, including the creation of a parallel government and educational system. Yet during eight years of struggle, the United States and most of the world ignored them. The West took interest in their plight only after more radical Kosovars took up arms in 1998, with the "assistance" coming in the form of high-altitude bombing during the spring of 1999. This prompted the Serbs to dramatically escalate their repression against the Albanian Kosovars through large-scale ethnic cleansing. After thousands were killed and tens of thousands were forced from their homes, the war ended on terms that most observers believe could have been reached had the allies been willing to pursue a diplomatic solution.

A year and a half later, in the fall of 2000, nonviolent action by the people of Serbia accomplished in a matter of days what eleven weeks of NATO bombing could not: the ouster of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

Could nonviolence have succeeded in Iraq? Most successful nonviolent prodemocracy movements have been centered in the urban middle class and working class. In Iraq, however, thanks to the devastation of the country's civilian infrastructure during the 1991 Gulf War and the draconian economic sanctions that followed, the once-burgeoning middle class was reduced to penury or forced to emigrate and was replaced by a new class of black marketeers who had a stake in preserving the status quo. Furthermore, with sanctions forcing the Iraqi people to become dependent on the regime for rations of badly needed food, medicine and other necessities, people were even less likely to take the already extraordinary risk of challenging it.

Lifting economic sanctions against the people of Iraq--while maintaining sanctions on military equipment and dual-use technologies that could have strengthened the government--might have encouraged such a movement. Instead of backing corrupt exiles with virtually no ties to the Iraqi people, quiet financial and logistical support for democratic elements within the country could have given such a movement a chance to grow. Instead of periodic airstrikes and threats of an invasion, which led people to rally around the flag, demonstrating confidence that the Iraqi people could free themselves would have increased the chances of Saddam Hussein's regime being ousted earlier, without the human and material losses and the anti-American resentment that have resulted from the war.

Nonviolence is not a panacea. For example, if a government is determined to unleash a campaign of genocide against an ethnic minority and has indoctrinated enough of its citizens to support it, outside military intervention may be necessary. However, the power of nonviolent action must be recognized and actively supported before we resign ourselves to the use of military force to end repression.

Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco, is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage) and the editor of Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective (Blackwell).

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