DECEMBER 2000 Inside 3 FELLOWSHIP PROJECT Creating Civil Society in the Vol. VII, No. 1 Balkans UN I T E D STAT E S IN S T I T U T E O F PE A C E ■ WA S H I N G T O N, DC 4 Stojan Cerovic on Serbia 5 Challenges in Macedonia Strategic Nonvi o l e n t 6 ETHNIC CON- FLICT IN DECLINE Action Key to Ted Robert Gurr Se r b i a ’s 11NEW BOARD Revo l u t i o n Training in nonviolent techniques helped the youth movement focus its strategy to topple Slobodan Milosevic, an Otpor leader says. discussed a broad range of political and economic issues facing Yugoslavia’s new leadership. For video eliance on a strategy of and audio recordings of the event, visit our web site Serbs turn out nonviolent resistance at www.usip.org/oc/cibriefing/yugorevo_cb.html) in the tens of enabled the Serbian opposition to remove Popovic noted that three months of peaceful street thousands to Slobodan Milosevic from power almost demonstrations in Belgrade against Milosevic in demonstrate without violence, says Srdja Popovic, a 1996–97, led by the political opposition and the outside the leader of Serbia’s grassroots youth move- youth movement, marked the beginning of the oppo- Yugoslav ment, Otpor (“Resistance”). Otpor was sition’s nonviolent strategy, signaling to Milosevic, Parliament in a critical participant in the October 5 uprising, dur- and to his supporters, that the people no longer Belgrade in ing which demonstrators stormed the Yugoslav feared him. Their disciplined defiance generated October. Parliament, took control of state-run television stu- increasing support among the populace. dios, and ousted Milosevic. While many observers The opposition’s steady application of nonviolent thought the uprising was spontaneous, the targets pressure is “emblematic of how nonviolent resistance had been carefully selected in a well-thought-out works,” noted panelist Peter Ackerman, principal strategic plan, Popovic says. “Nonviolence is critical content adviser for the recent PBS documentary, A to this story,” he stressed at a U.S. Institute of Peace Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict, Current Issues Briefing, “Yugoslavia After the and co-author of a companion book by that name Revolution,” held on October 12. and of Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: The Dynamics (While this article focuses on the Serbian opposi- of People Power in the Twentieth Century (1994). tion’s use of nonviolence, speakers at the briefing See Strategic Nonviolence, page 2 2 St r a t e g i c No nv i o l e n c e Continued from page 1 Right: Serbian Research for the documentary was demonstrators funded in part by the Institute of hold up arrow- Peace. shaped signs “Milosevic terrorized the few saying, “He has to gain compliance of the many, to go,” refer- which allowed him to use a very ring to Yugoslav small core group of fanatics sup- president porting him to leverage his activi- Slobodan ties and stay in control of the Milosevic dur- many,” Ackerman said. “The ing a second genius of nonviolent resistance day of protest movements is that they are dis- in front of the tributed throughout all of society, federal not just geographically but demo- nonviolent struggle have been Events in Serbia provide further Parliament in graphically, among old people, undertaken by people such as evidence. Belgrade in young people, the rich, the poor, those in the Serbian opposition, October. men, women—vastly complicat- who had no viable military Training in Nonviolent ing the requirements in manpower options for overthrowing the Resistance and materiel for the authorities to oppressor, Ackerman said. Recent maintain power.” Most cases of events in Serbia represented “a Over the last two years, Popovic considerable broadening of resist- said, the opposition honed its ance in that country that had not understanding and use of nonvio- been seen before.” The tyrant lent action, most recently with the depends not just on force, but on help of a retired U.S. Army the loyalty over time of agents of colonel, Robert Helvey, who pro- repression such as the police and vided some 20 hours of intensive Peace Watch (ISSN 1080-9864) is pub- lished six times a year by the United States military. training in nonviolent principles Institute of Peace, an independent, nonpar- In Serbia, the police and army and strategy in March and April. tisan federal institution created by Congress to promote research, education, abandoned Milosevic, notes The International Republican and training on the peaceful resolution of international conflicts. The views Stojan Cerovic, a senior fellow at Institute, a nongovernmental expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the Institute and columnist for organization based in the views of the Institute or its board of directors. Vreme, an independent weekly Washington, D.C., which had To receive Peace Watch, write to the Editor, Peace Watch, United States Institute newspaper in Serbia. “Serbia’s been working to develop political of Peace, 1200 17th Street NW, Suite 200, army is a conscript force, it is part parties in Serbia, hired Helvey to Washington, DC 20036-3011. For general information call 202-457-1700, fax 202- of the people; when the people are do the training. 429-6063, e-mail: [email protected], or check our web site: www.usip.org. in the mood to resist that means “Those were sharp young men the army is in the mood to resist, and women,” Helvey said of the President: Richard H. Solomon Executive Vice President: Harriet Hentges too,” he said in an interview. Otpor trainees. He discussed the Publications Director: Dan Snodderly Ackerman stressed that the training effort in a phone inter- Editor: Cynthia Roderick Production Manager: Marie Marr foreign affairs community has view following the Institute’s Photo Credits: Staff, AP Wide World Photos ignored the policy implications of briefing. “They were obviously Board of Directors nonviolent conflict: “It is widely very committed and courageous. Chairman: Chester A. Crocker. Vice Chairman: Max M. Kampelman. Members: assumed that violence is the only Many had been arrested and beat- Dennis L. Bark, Stephen J. Hadley, force to reckon with in the man- en several times. They did a great Theodore M. Hesburgh, Zalmay Khalilzad, Seymour Martin Lipset, W. Scott agement of conflict. That assump- job and all the credit goes to Thompson, Allen Weinstein, Harriet Zimmerman. Members Ex Officio: tion remains unchallenged in the them.” Helvey explained that he Madeleine Korbel Albright, Secretary of face of enormous evidence to the bases his training on the concepts State; Paul G. Gaffney II, National Defense University; Walter B. Slocombe, contrary, including the nonviolent of Gene Sharp, author of The Department of Defense; Richard H. movements throughout eastern Politics of Nonviolent Action Solomon, Institute president (nonvoting). Europe that ended the Cold War.” (1973), a three-volume opus on the subject. The second volume 3 lists 198 examples of nonviolent F E L L O W S H I P P R O J E C T direct action techniques. In his training sessions, Helvey covers the sources of power in a society, Creating Civil Society in the Balkan s their strengths and weaknesses, then has participants define their fter ten years of intervention in the Balkans, the international com- own objectives and develop a Amunity needs to assess the way it conducts business and politics strategic plan for reaching them. there, says Keith Brown, a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Among many other related tech- “Some people in the region have mastered the skill of saying what pow- niques and issues, the training erful international institutions want to hear without necessarily embrac- also covers how to put an oppo- ing the ideas,” he notes. “They declare commitments to whatever will nent in a situation where he has secure access to resources. Over the long term, this works only two options, “to lose or to against the goal of building a stable civil society.” lose,” Helvey said. Br own is prof essor of anthrop o l o g y at the Wat s o n After the training, Otpor cre- Institute of Interna t i o nal Studies at Brown Univer s i t y, ated a user’s manual of nonviolent wh e r e he focuses on nationalism in Southeast Europ e , resistance theory and techniques es p e c i a l ly Macedonian culture and society. His fel - based on Sharp’s books and lo wship project details the kind of intimate and trained some 70,000 activists nuanced knowledge of local practices and who, through a variety of nonvio- be l i e f s that is necessary to refine policy lent methods and actions, paved rec om m e n d a t i o ns that might win the the way for and helped to lead su p p o r t of people in the Balkans reg i o n the October 5 revolt. and help them to build a more stable future. In spite of all the planning, Brown bases his analysis of international there was still a considerable activity in the Balkans on the traditional role of degree of uncertainty as to how “broker figures” in society. Broker figures are influen- things would unfold, no guaran- tial in creating and managing authority, Brown explains. tee that the resistance would be Brokers are those individuals who exercise some control or free of violence and deaths, and influence over flows of information, people, and goods within and much room for spontaneity on between societies, or segments of societies, and who are able to convert the part of demonstrators, this control or influence into authority or profit, he says.