Selina Gallo-Cruz: The Successes, Failures, and Long Story of the Globalization of Nonviolence

The Study of Global Politics series at the Moynihan Institute presents Syracuse’s own Selina Gallo-Cruz.

Nonviolence is celebrated and practiced around the world, as a universal ‘method for all human conflict.’ In this talk, I present in-depth historical research on the global spread of nonviolence. I give particular attention to the growth and influence of formal organizational who act as social movement emissaries carrying nonviolence across borders as best practice for citizen claimsmaking. And I provide a global perspective on the success of nonviolence with the spread of favorable and corresponding global models of state and civic participation.

I then explain how global and historical perspective illuminates some of the messier dynamics of “civil resistance” and “people power” and provides new insights into the repertoire’s successes and failures across contexts and over time. I conclude with a discussion of the role of institutionalization and the social forces that shape decoupling between the adoption of nonviolence and nonviolent movement outcomes.

Gallo-Cruz is an associate professor of sociology. She researches culture, conflict, gender, global change, NGOs, nonviolence, social movements and theory. She is author of “Political Invisibility and Mobilization: Women Against State Violence” (Routledge, 2021), winner of the American Sociological Association’s Peace, War and Social Conflict section’s Outstanding Book Award.