Gaining political power

[Hugh]

Party Training Manuals 1 and 2
http://www.accessdemocracy.org/library/1930_polpart_manuals_010105.pdf

TRAINING MANUAL 1: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE NEXT
GENERATION
OF LEADERS 3
Building Political Parties 6
Diverse options for democratic party structures & processes 9
Systematic Leadership Selection 11
Vertical Communication 12
Horizontal communication 13
Continuous Training for Party Workers 14
Putting it all together: Internal democratic renewal 15
Survey of Participants in Political Party Program 2004 17
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) 19
Party Image 21
Leadership Inventory 22
Best Practices of Effective Parties 27

TRAINING MANUAL 2: CAMPAIGNS AND COMMUNICATIONS 28
Campaigns And Communication: Agenda 29
A Political Campaign: 31
Features Of A Political Campaign 31
Campaign Activities 32
Eligibility Criteria 34
What Is A Message? 36
From Monologue Into Dialogue 37
Community Priorities Survey 38
Some Ways To Deliver Your Message 39
Dealing With The Media 39
Win With Women 41
Making Political Speeches 42
Who Are My Voters? 43
How To Pay For A Campaign 46
Preparing A Campaign Plan 48
Duties Of Campaign Team Members 49
Elements Of A Successful Campaign 50
Sample Campaign Team: Small Organization 52
Sample Campaign Team: Large Organization 53
Handy Hints For Canvassers 54
Campaign Plan Template 56
Campaign Exercise: Happy Valley 61

Political Parties and Civil Society: Working Together

http://www.accessdemocracy.org/library/2132_polpart_workbook_030107.pdf

Table of Contents
Overview: Why consider working with civil society to solve citizen
concerns?
Building party-civil society solutions: goals and objectives
Getting Past Perceptions
Activity 1: What do we think of them?
Activity 2: What do they think of us?
Activity 3: What is civil society?
Activity 4: What are my party's goals?
Determine Who's Out There: Investigate
Activity 5: Community Mapping Exercise
Talk to Each Other: Communicate and Dialogue
Activity 6: How will you communicate or dialogue?
Take Action Together: Collaborate
Activity 7: Finding common ground
Putting it all together
Activity 8: Building a party strategy for civil society engagement
Review
Appendix
Activity 8: Group Instructions
Skills for negotiating with civil society
Materials consulted

Political Party Capacity Building Programme
http://www.accessdemocracy.org/library/1719_na_politicalpartiesmanual_060104.pdf

Table of Contents

Overview
Small Group Discussion #1 – Characteristics of Effective Political
Parties
What are the Functions of Political Parties?
Concerns about Political Parties
What makes Political Parties Democratic?
Party Unity
Attributes and Strategies of Political Parties
Party Organisation
Exercise #1 – Party Message Development
Party Message Development
Small Group Discussion #2 – Party Message Development
Exercise #2 – Voter Contact
Voter Contact
Working with the Media
Party Internal Communications
Exercise #3 – Membership Recruitment
Membership Recruitment
Exercise #4 – Volunteer Mobilisation
Volunteer Mobilisation
Strategic Planning for Elections
Small Group Discussion #3 – Strategic Election Planning
Voter Targeting
Exercise #5 – Voter Targeting
Resource Mobilisation
Small Group Discussion #4 – Resource Mobilisation
Voter Education
Get out the Vote (GOTV)
Party Poll Watching
Sample Form #1 – Poll Watching Form

Joining Forces: A Guide for Forming, Joining and Building Political Coalitions

http://www.accessdemocracy.org/library/2143_polpart_guide_political_coalitions_100204.pdf

Introduction
Many political parties and organizations find coalitions to be an
important and useful way to increase power and stretch resources. At
the same time, coalitions can often be hard to form and difficult to
hold together. This document presents the political considerations of
coalition building. Political parties and organizations should use
this paper as a tool for exploring the various issues that may arise
when joining forces with others. While there are many types of
coalitions the focus here is the development of coalitions for
political purposes.

The guide will not tell you how to form your coalition and will not
serve as a rigid structure for all types of coalitions. Rather it will
offer a series of pointed questions that political parties and
organizations should think about as they consider joining in coalition
with like minded parties and organizations.

By thinking through the process and answering the Coalition Questions
in the boxes as truthfully as possible you will be better prepared to
work with other political actors to further your agenda and reach your
political goals.

The points that will be covered here include:
• What is a coalition?
• Why build a coalition?
• Three Resources in Politics
• Types of Coalitions
• Levels of Participation in Political Coalitions
• Advantages to Building or Joining A Coalition
• Disadvantages to Building or Joining A Coalition
• Successful Coalitions
• Challenges Facing Coalitions
• Questions to Consider
• Maintaining the Coalition


DEVELOPMENTS IN PARTY COMMUNICATIONS
http://www.accessdemocracy.org/library/1950_polpart_norris_110105.pdf

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DEVELOPMENTS IN PARTY COMMUNICATIONS
THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF PARTIES
CHANNELS OF PARTY COMMUNICATION
The Context of Communication
Types of Communication Channels
Public Feedback
The Main Types of Party-Communication Channels
PEOPLE-INTENSIVE CAMPAIGNS
BROADCASTING CAMPAIGNS
INTERNET CAMPAIGNS
THE IMPACT OF THESE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
COMMUNICATION POLICY
Media Systems
The Map of Media Systems
Ownership and Structure of the Mass Media
Party Campaign Organizations and Funding
The Regulatory Framework
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
APPENDIX: MEASURES OF MEDIA FREEDOM, MEDIA ACCESS, AND THE
COMMUNICATION INDEX

Political Party Training Manual

http://www.accessdemocracy.org/library/2030_pk_strengtheningpolparties_010106.pdf

Content

Section 1 A WINNING ORGANISATION 1
Building Political Parties 1
Building our Members 2
Sample Branch Agenda 3
Function Control Chart 4
Party Branch Structure 5
What is a Political Party? 6
Women's Contribution to Political Parties 7
Who Does what Within the Party? 8
Party Project: Why develop a Party Project? 9
Guidelines for Party Projects 11

Section 2 WHAT IS LOCAL GOVERNMENT 19
What is Local Government 19
Roles of Local Government Councils 20
Functions of Local Authorities 21
Local Politics Toolbox 23

Section 3 A WINNING MANIFESTO 25
Developing a Policy Platform 25
Community Priority Survey 28
Developing a Media Strategy 29
Preparing a Press Release 29
Preparing an Effective Political Speech 33
Strategies to persuade others 34

Section 4 A WINNING CAMPAIGN 36
Elements of a Successful Campaign 36
The Golden Rule 38
Small Campaign Organization 40
A Campaign Team and its Duties 42
Features of a Political Campaign 43
Four Phases of Effective Campaign 44
Campaign Activities 46
Handy Hints for Canvassers 47
Who are my Voters? 49
Planning an Issue Oriented Campaign 50
Winning Campaigns 51
SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats 55
Message Development 57
Some ways to Deliver Your Message 62
Negotiations 63
Considerations for Contesting 64
Campaign Budgets 66
General Fundraising Rules 67
Ten Steps for Organising a Successful Public Forum 70
Checklist for Organizing a Public Forum 71

Section 5 BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER 72
Sample worksheets for campaigning 72
Campaign Plan Template 85

[Hugh]

Canvasopedia contains the information divided into four main areas:

1) Sources of Power
2) Pillars of Support
3) Methods of Non-Violent Action
4) Non-violent Action Dictionary

1) SOURCES OF POWER
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/canvasopedia/sources.htm

Power in the Society, models and sources of power

To conduct the nonviolent struggle, we must understand the nature of political power, because the objective of any struggle is either to achieve the political power, or to deny it to somebody else.

You cannot change the society, without having the political powers to pursue the reforms. It is not the fighting for ideals, but fighting for political power to make that ideals true.

There are two models in explaining the political power.

Monolithic Model

Monolithic system (drawing) is the system dictatorships want you the understand. Solid and unmovable as the rocky mountain. Power is fixed, nothing can change, except the people on the top. Whoever is on the top, controls the power on the society. You can change the guy on the top, which is called the revolution. But model stays the same - One who is sitting on the top of the mountain, controls the power in the society.

You can attack the rock with your actions or the campaigns, breaking the small pieces away. But the mountain of power is still there.

You can have the achievements in the society, if you have good guy on the top.. says the regime!

There is only one problem with this model. IT IS NOT TRUE! Power is not functioning this way, no matters how many times your dictator told you that it functions this way, reality learns you something else.

Pluralistic model

However monolithic or fixed it may see, through previous model, the nature of power is completely different. Power is changing very swiftly in the society; it is fragile, and dispersed.

Although society. It is everywhere, where the people are, because the power in the society is coming from the people.

And those people, the small, individual sources of political power can change their minds. The ruler only has the power that people provide them. God is not giving political power, people are providing it. That power can be given to the ruler willingly, like in democratic societies, or they can be coerced to give it, against their own will, or they can just be apathetic, and give that power because they don't care, they don't think that their vote can make the change. And that is why nonviolent campaigns are so important / to make people aware that their vote and personal action CAN make the change.

According to this model, the power is located throughout society.

There are six sources of Power in the society:

1. Authority (or legitimacy) of the ruler, defined as the position to give orders , combined with the obligation of the people to obey to those orders.

2. Human resources , the persons and groups that obey, cooperate with, or assist the rulers; commonly seen as the people in the pyramid of authority (including different institutions) who co-operate with the ruler voluntarily or under pressure, transferring his authority to the masses .

3. Skills and knowledge of those who cooperate with ruler, needed by the regime and supplied by the cooperating persons and groups;

4. Material resources - control of or access to property, natural resources, financial resources, the economic system, and means of communication and transportation;

The ruler's power lies in the fact of how much of material resources are under ruler's control.. For example, how many people who are disobedient and willing to act against the ruler are materially dependent, and controlled by regime.

5. Intangible factor , psychological and ideological factors which may induce people to obey and assist the rulers; Those factors usually owe their existence to tradition and custom, such as the tradition of obeying people in uniforms, representatives of the church, gerontocratic (listening to the elders in the society) phenomena etc.

6. Sanctions - punishments, threatened or applied, to ensure the submission and cooperation that are needed for the regime to carry out its policies and to exist.
Fear of sanctions is the model of applying this source of power in individual societies. Examples of this last source are even the possibility of being fired for disobedience, arrested, or physically abused, not the sanctions itself.

Power can shift from one group to another

All sources of power are dependant on people. Although the ruler would like to be seen as "God-given" the sources of power listed above depend on the will of the people to obey.

Repressive mechanisms such as sanctions (being fired, arrested, trailed, and brutalized) are completely dependent on those who carry them out (judges, police, bureaucrats, etc.) and the regime has taken care of this so that the apparatus listens to their orders without question. However strong the regime actually is or just acts to be, one shouldn't forget that there is no power without the obedience of the people.
Key to shift the power from one social group (regime) to another (opposition) is to apply mechanisms of Conversion, Accommodation and Coercion, in order to get support from the individual people (or groups) inside social institutions, or make them withdraw their support from your opponent.

Understand the pillars of support

[Hugh]

2) PILLARS OF SUPPORT

http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/canvasopedia/pillars.htm

"By themselves, rulers cannot collect taxes, enforce repressive laws and regulations, keep trains running on time, prepare national budgets, direct traffic, manage ports, print money, repair roads, keep food supplied to the markets, make steel, build rockets, train the police and army, issue postage stamps or even milk a cow. People provide these services to the ruler though a variety of organizations and institutions. If the people stop providing these skills, the ruler cannot rule."

Once we understand the nature of power, we must understand how they function in the society, which mean bringing them to gather into institutions.

Those institutions holding up the building of power are called Pillars of the support.

As well, if you withdraw the sources of power, if you withdraw the institutional support/the government will collapse.

Pillars of the support are functioning and operating through different institutions and organizations.

Example of those Institutions, holding castle call government are the following:

Police (Law Enforcement)
Bureaucracy (Civil Servants)
Educational System (Teachers and students)
Organized Religion (Church and Tsonga)

THE POLICE
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/canvasopedia/pillars/police.htm
Police - important source of power in the society controlled by government. They maintain law and order, they protect the government as well as the people, they are securing that system stays stable.

Within police department you can track all different sources of power:

1. Authority - because police has a right to do what they are doing, given to them by the law.

2. Human Resources - large numbers, thousands and thousands of the policemen

3. Skills and Knowledge - those people bring their various skills and knowledge to this institution - how to investigate, how to break up the demonstrations, how to put you under police surveillance without you can notice that, how to beat you for hours without making your injuries visible after that.

4. Material resources - from weapons and radios, through enormous budget to the police cars with fancy lights and sirens, equipment for break-up demonstrations, teargas.

5. Sanctions - if you not obey the police, you are going to be punished, and if you are resisting their orders, for example running away once they want to stop you, you can count that your punishment will even became worse

6. Intangible factor - you are used to obey the police, you even obey when the police is not present, you are obeying even the symbols of police authority.

(Example: Stopping your car on red traffic light at 3 in the morning without anybody present miles around / because you have the habit of obeying that symbol of police authority!)

BUREAUCRACY (Civil servants)

http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/canvasopedia/pillars/bureau.htm

Civil servants make this huge administrative monster called state moving away, maybe a little slow, but MOVING. Slow, inefficient and corrupted bureaucracies are trade mark of 90% non democratic countries.

(Example: if you want to attack this pillar by slowing it so the whole system constipating you can watch through how Serbian administration was functioning, even regularly> they couldn't do it slower because they were doing noting/ come up 10 o clock, morning coffee, looking the phone calls, having papers,then breakfast, then lunch, long one, because they were they were doing their side business, and corruption, than came back, and if the boss didn't called they went back home.)

Except making the decisions brought by the authorities really happen , which bring them authority, bureaucracy is also huge in numbers (HR) bureaucracy has a huge repertoire of skills and knowledge how to make easy things in life complicated.

They can also perform sanctions , because they can stop any part of almost all society processes (for getting passport to start building your house for which you need at least 10 different permissions issued by various departments of state bureaucracies.

At the end, they are paid by the state; their huge budget (material resources) is always coming from the taxpayer's money-from the people.

They can also be used by dictators for different purposes.

But do not forget:

If the bureaucracy withdraws the support, everything stops .

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/canvasopedia/pillars/education.htm

Teachers and students are primarily pillar of support in many societies. Teachers form the mind of young children, teachers help older students to think, and learn rational thinking. During mentorship they are giving you advices, and you hear them.

Every government depending very much on teachers, because through teachers young generations accept the rules and values governments want them to accept. Another reason is because they keep students quiet and in line. If the teachers start encouraging university students to speak mind in class, or show at the demonstrations, they are supporting the revolutionaries.

Students, throughout the history, not only Eastern Europe were on avant-garde of revolutionary movements throughout world. Students by themselves do not make revolutions happen .

They are too small in numbers (2-3% of the society)but they serve the function of awakening the people, pointing to problem, and providing to the people the vision of tomorrow (democracy, rule of law) and they can shame out elder people to the action.

They are not stand by themselves; they stand together with their family. Whether your parents would disagree, and primarily because they love you so much, and afraid that something will happen to you on the demonstrations they will stand for you - because it is their parents obligation.

They are also considered being immortal - bad things are not going happen to them, but to somebody else. They have nothing to lose - careers, jobs, month salaries, women and children, because they normally don't have all of them yet. If they have problem with the parents, their commitment to the democratic struggle is too strong they are going to participate.

ORGANIZED RELIGION (Church or Tsonga)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/canvasopedia/pillars/religion.htm

Generally conservative and supportive on the current regime, because they have more influence, and more freedom to operate.

But you can find individuals and local organizations inside this pillar in almost every example of pro democratic struggle that those individuals were supporting the pro democracy movements.

Sources of power:

1. Authority of being between you and the supreme being,

2. Enormous human resources not only priest, but the believers, ready to act and support Church decisions,

3. Skills and knowledge to perform all those religious rituals,

4. Huge material resources, buildings, real estate, gold..

5. Damning sanctions (excommunication), and of course

6. Intangible factor of obeying the Church obligations and rules.

[Hugh]

3) METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION

http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/canvasopedia/methods.htm

by Gene Sharp - supplemented by Canvas

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION
Formal Statements
1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
4. Signed public statements
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
6. Group or mass petitions

Communications with a Wider Audience
7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
8. Banners, posters, displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
12. Skywriting and earthwriting
12a. IT messaging - Mass SMS and e-mailing
[This method was developed in Serbia 2000 by OTPOR (Resistance) during nonviolent Campaign against Slobodan Milosevic]

Group Representations
13. Deputations
14. Mock awards
15. Group lobbying
16. Picketing
17. Mock elections

Symbolic Public Acts
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
20. Prayer and worship
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
24. Symbolic lights
25. Displays of portraits
26. Paint as protest
27. New signs and names
28. Symbolic sounds
29. Symbolic reclamations
30. Rude gestures

Pressures on Individuals
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils

Drama and Music
35. Humorous skits and pranks
36. Performances of plays and music
37. Singing

Processions
38. Marches
39. Parades
40. Religious processions
41. Pilgrimages
42. Motorcades

Honoring the Dead
43. Political mourning
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals
46. Homage at burial places

Public Assemblies
47. Assemblies of protest or support
48. Protest meetings
49. Camouflaged meetings of protest
50. Teach-ins

Withdrawal and Renunciation
51. Walk-outs
52. Silence
53. Renouncing honors
54. Turning one's back

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION
Ostracism of Persons
55. Social boycott
56. Selective social boycott
57. Lysistratic nonaction
58. Excommunication
59. Interdict

Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions
60. Suspension of social and sports activities
61. Boycott of social affairs
62. Student strike
63. Social disobedience
64. Withdrawal from social institutions

Withdrawal from the Social System
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation
67. "Flight" of workers
68. Sanctuary
69. Collective disappearance
70. Protest emigration [hijrat]

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION: ECONOMIC BOYCOTTS
Actions by Consumers
71. Consumers' boycott
72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
73. Policy of austerity
74. Rent withholding
75. Refusal to rent
76. National consumers' boycott
77. International consumers' boycott

Action by Workers and Producers
78. Workmen's boycott
79. Producers' boycott

Action by Middlemen
80. Suppliers' and handlers' boycott

Action by Owners and Management
81. Traders' boycott
82. Refusal to let or sell property
83. Lockout
84. Refusal of industrial assistance
85. Merchants' "general strike"

Action by Holders of Financial Resources
86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
88. Refusal to pay debts or interest
89. Severance of funds and credit
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government's money

Action by Governments
92. Domestic embargo
93. Blacklisting of traders
94. International sellers' embargo
95. International buyers' embargo
96. International trade embargo

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION: THE STRIKE
Symbolic Strikes
97. Protest strike
98. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

Agricultural Strike
99. Peasant strike
100. Farm Workers' strike

Strikes by Special Groups
101. Refusal of impressed labor
102. Prisoners' strike
103. Craft strike
104. Professional strike

Ordinary Industrial Strikes
105. Establishment strike
106. Industry strike
107. Sympathetic strike

Restricted Strikes
108. Detailed strike
109. Bumper strike
110. Slowdown strike
111. Working-to-rule strike
112. Reporting "sick" [sick-in]
113. Strike by resignation
114. Limited strike
115. Selective strike

Multi-Industry Strikes
116. Generalized strike
117. General strike

Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures
118. Hartal
119. Economic shutdown

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION
Rejection of Authority
120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
121. Refusal of public support
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance

Citizens' Noncooperation with Government
123. Boycott of legislative bodies
124. Boycott of elections
125. Boycott of government employment and positions
126. Boycott of government depts., agencies, and other bodies
127. Withdrawal from government educational institutions
128. Boycott of government-supported organizations
129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
130. Removal of own signs and placemarks
131. Refusal to accept appointed officials
132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

Citizens' Alternatives to Obedience
133. Reluctant and slow compliance
134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
135. Popular nonobedience
136. Disguised disobedience
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
138. Sit-down
139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
141. Civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws

Action by Government Personnel
142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
143. Blocking of lines of command and information
144. Stalling and obstruction
145. General administrative noncooperation
146. Judicial noncooperation
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

Domestic Governmental Action
149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units

International Governmental Action
151. Changes in diplomatic and other representations
152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
154. Severance of diplomatic relations
155. Withdrawal from international organizations
156. Refusal of membership in international bodies
157. Expulsion from international organizations

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION
Psychological Intervention
158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast
a) Fast of moral pressure
b) Hunger strike
c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
161. Nonviolent harassment

Physical Intervention
162. Sit-in
163. Stand-in
164. Ride-in
165. Wade-in
166. Mill-in
167. Pray-in
168. Nonviolent raids
169. Nonviolent air raids
170. Nonviolent invasion
171. Nonviolent interjection
172. Nonviolent obstruction
173. Nonviolent occupation

Social Intervention
174. Establishing new social patterns
175. Overloading of facilities
176. Stall-in
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system

Economic Intervention
181. Reverse strike
182. Stay-in strike
183. Nonviolent land seizure
184. Defiance of blockades
185. Politically motivated counterfeiting
186. Preclusive purchasing
187. Seizure of assets
188. Dumping
189. Selective patronage
190. Alternative markets
191. Alternative transportation systems
192. Alternative economic institutions

Political Intervention
193. Overloading of administrative systems
194. Disclosing identities of secret agents
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws
197. Work-on without collaboration
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government

[Hugh]

4) NONVIOLENT ACTION DICTIONARY
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/canvasopedia/dictionary.htm

GLOSSARY OF IMPORTANT TERMS IN NONVIOLENT STRUGGLE

Accommodation: A mechanism of change in nonviolent action in which the opponents resolve, while they still have a choice, to agree to a compromise and grant certain demands of the nonviolent resisters. Accommodation occurs when the opponents have neither changed their views nor been nonviolently coerced, but have concluded that a compromise settlement is desirable. The accommodation may result from influences that, if continued, might have led to the conversion, nonviolent coercion, or disintegration of the opponents' system or regime.

Authority: The quality that leads the judgments, decisions, recommendations, and orders of certain individuals and institutions to be accepted voluntarily as right and therefore to be implemented by others through obedience or cooperation. Authority is a main source of political power, but is not identical with it.

Boycott: Non-cooperation, either socially, economically, or politically.

Campaign: represents a series of activities (tactics) designed to achieve medium and long-term goals. Campaigns are more likely to be successful if your entire group has an opportunity to be involved in the planning process. To share ownership in the planning process, we must adopt some common terminology when talking about our campaign organizing.

Civic abstention: A synonym for acts of political non cooperation.

Civic action: A synonym for nonviolent action conducted for political purposes.

Civic defiance: Assertive acts of nonviolent protest, resistance or intervention conducted for political purposes.

Civic resistance: A synonym for nonviolent resistance with a political objective.

Civic strike: An economic shut-down conducted for political reasons. Not only workers may go on strike, but importantly students, professionals, shopkeepers, white-collar workers (including government employees), and members of upper classes may participate.

Civil disobedience: A deliberate peaceful violation of particular laws, decrees, regulations, ordinances, military or police orders, and the like. These are usually laws that are regarded as inherently immoral, unjust, or tyrannical. Sometimes, however, laws of a largely regulatory or morally neutral character may be disobeyed as a symbol of opposition to wider policies of the government.

Conversion: A change of viewpoint by the opponents against whom nonviolent action has been waged, such that they come to believe it is right to accept the objectives of the nonviolent group. This is one of four mechanisms of change in nonviolent action.

Disintegration: The fourth mechanism of change in nonviolent action, in which the opponents are not simply coerced, but their system or government is disintegrated and falls apart as a result of massive non cooperation and defiance. The sources of power are restricted or severed by the non cooperation to such an extreme degree that the opponents' system or government simply dissolves.

Economic shut-down: A suspension of the economic activities of a city, area, or country on a sufficient scale to produce economic paralysis. The motives are usually political. This may be achieved with a general strike by workers while management, business, commercial institutions, and small shopkeepers close their establishments and halt their economic activities.

Freedom (political): A political condition that permits freedom of choice and action for individuals and also for individuals and groups to participate in the decisions and operation of the society and the political system.

Goal: Final target (mission) that should be achieved. (Example: Getting at least 1,000 people to sign a petition). Short-term goals are things which you can do within short period of time - for instance within a month - like obtaining the petition signatures. Long-term goals are those that should be achieved within couple years, or even decades. These goals are often linked, or may depend on achieving one or more (sometimes even a series) of short-term goals. Long-term goals are, by the rule, more complicate to achieve and therefore require more time. They are considered more important than short-term goals, as their general value is higher compared to short-term goals. Therefore, if sometimes a short-term goal makes an obstacle for achieving a long-term goal it is advised to sacrifice the short-term goal (see tactic for more info).

Grand strategy: The broadest conception of how an objective is to be attained in a conflict by a chosen course of action. The grand strategy serves to coordinate and direct all appropriate and available resources (human, political, economic, moral, etc.) of the group to attain its objectives in a conflict. Several more limited strategies may be applied within a grand strategy to achieve particular objectives in subordinate phases of the overall struggle.

Grievance group: The general population group whose grievances are issues in the conflict, and are being championed by the nonviolent resisters.

Human resources: A term that is used here to indicate the number of persons and groups who obey "the ruler" (meaning the ruling group in command of the state), cooperate with, or assist the ruling group in implementing their will. This includes the proportion of such persons and groups in the general population, and the extent, forms, and independence of their organizations. A ruler's power is affected by the availability of these human resources, which constitute one of the sources of political power.

Material resources: This is another source of political power. The term refers to property, natural resources, financial resources, the economic system, means of communication, and modes of transportation. The degree to which the ruler controls, or does not control, these helps to determine the extent or limits of the ruler's power.

Mechanisms of change: The processes by which change is achieved in successful cases of nonviolent struggle. The four mechanisms are conversion, accommodation, nonviolent coercion, and disintegration.

Methods: The specific means of action within the technique of nonviolent action. Nearly two hundred specific methods have thus far been identified. They are classed under three main classes: nonviolent protest and persuasion, non cooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention.

Non cooperation: A large class of methods of nonviolent action that involve deliberate restriction, discontinuance, or withholding of social, economic, or political cooperation (or a combination of these) with a disapproved person, activity, institution, or regime. The methods of non cooperation are classified in the subcategories of social non cooperation, economic non cooperation (economic boycotts and labour strikes), and political non cooperation

Nonviolence (religious or ethical): Beliefs and behaviour of several types in which violent acts are prohibited on religious or ethical grounds. In some belief systems, not only physical violence is barred but also hostile thoughts and words. Certain belief systems additionally enjoin positive attitudes and behaviour toward opponents, or even a rejection of the concept of opponents. Such believers often may participate in nonviolent struggles with people practicing nonviolent struggle for pragmatic reasons, or may choose not to do so.

Nonviolent action (NVA): A general technique of conducting protest, resistance, and intervention without physical violence. Such action may be conducted by (a) acts of omission - that is, the participants refuse to perform acts that they usually perform, are expected by custom to perform, or are required by law or regulation to perform; or (b) acts of commission - that is, the participants perform acts that they usually do not perform, are not expected by custom to perform, or are forbidden by law or regulation from performing; or (c) a combination of both. The technique includes a multitude of specific methods that are grouped into three main classes: nonviolent protest and persuasion, non cooperation, and nonviolent intervention.

Nonviolent coercion: A mechanism of change in nonviolent action in which demands are achieved against the will of the opponents because effective control of the situation has been taken away from them by widespread non cooperation and defiance. However, the opponents still remain in their official positions and the system has not yet disintegrated.

Nonviolent insurrection: A popular political uprising against an established regime regarded as oppressive by use of massive non cooperation and defiance.

Nonviolent intervention: A large class of methods of nonviolent action that in a conflict situation directly interfere by nonviolent means with the opponents' activities and operation of their system. These methods are distinguished from both symbolic protests and non cooperation The disruptive intervention is most often physical (as in a sit-in) but may be psychological, social, economic, or political.

Nonviolent protest and persuasion: A large class of methods of nonviolent action that are symbolic acts expressing opposition opinions or attempting persuasion (as vigils, marches or picketing). These acts extend beyond verbal expressions of opinion but stop short of non cooperation (as a strike) and nonviolent intervention (as a sitting).

Nonviolent struggle: The waging of determined conflict by strong forms of nonviolent action, especially against determined and resourceful opponents who may respond with repression.

Nonviolent weapons: The specific methods of nonviolent action.

Pillars of support: The institutions and sections of the society that supply the existing regime with the needed sources of power to maintain and expand its power capacity. Examples are the police, prisons, and military forces supplying sanctions, moral and religious leaders supplying authority (legitimacy), labour groups and business and investment groups supplying economic resources, and similarly with the other identified sources of political power. (See more details on Pillars of Support page.)

Political defiance: The strategic application of nonviolent struggle in order to disintegrate a dictatorship and to replace it with a democratic system. This resistance by non cooperation and defiance mobilizes the power of the oppressed population in order to restrict and cut off the sources of the dictatorship's power. Those sources are provided by groups and institutions called "pillars of support". When political defiance is used successfully, it can make a nation ungovernable by the current or any future dictatorship and therefore able to preserve a democratic system against possible new threats.

Political jiu-jitsu: A special process that may operate during a nonviolent struggle to change power relationships. In political jiujutsu negative reactions to the opponents' violent repression against nonviolent resisters is turned to operate politically against the opponents, weakening their power position and strengthening that of the nonviolent resisters. This can operate only when violent repression is met with continued nonviolent defiance, not violence or surrender. The opponents' repression is then seen in the worst possible light. Resulting shifts of opinion are likely to occur among third parties, the general grievance group, and even the opponents' usual supporters. Those shifts may produce both withdrawal of support for the opponents and increased support for the nonviolent resisters. The result may be widespread condemnation of the opponents, internal opposition among the opponents, and increased resistance. These changes can at times produce major shifts in power relationships in favour of the nonviolent struggle group. Political jiujutsu does not operate in all cases of nonviolent struggle. When it is absent the shift of power relationships depends highly on the extent of non cooperation

Political power: The totality of influences and pressures available for use to determine and implement official policies for a society. Political power may be wielded by the institutions of government, or in opposition to the government by dissident groups and organizations. Political power may be directly applied in a conflict, or it may be held as a reserve capacity for possible later use.

Sanctions (Embargo): Punishments or reprisals, violent or nonviolent, imposed either because people have failed to act in the expected or desired manner or because people have acted in an unexpected or prohibited manner. Nonviolent sanctions are less likely than violent ones to be simple reprisals for disobedience and are more likely to be intended to achieve a given objective. Sanctions are a source of political power.

Self-reliance: The capacity to manage one's own affairs, make one's own judgments, and provide for oneself, one's group or organization, independence, self-determination, and self-sufficiency.

Skills and knowledge: A source of political power. The ruler's power is supported by the skills, knowledge and abilities that are provided by persons and groups in the society (human resources) and the relation of those available skills, knowledge and abilities to the ruler's needs for them.

Sources of power: These are origins of political power. They include: authority, human resources, skills and knowledge, intangible factors, material resources and sanctions. These derive from the society. Each of these sources is closely associated with and dependent upon the acceptance, cooperation, and obedience of the population and the society's institutions. With a strong supply of these sources the ruler will be powerful. As the supply is weakened or severed, the ruler's power will weaken or collapse.

Strategic nonviolent struggle: Nonviolent struggle that is applied according to a strategic plan that has been prepared on the basis of analysis of the conflict situation, the strengths and weaknesses of the contending groups, the nature, capacities, and requirements of the technique of nonviolent action, and especially strategic principles of that type of struggle. See also: grand strategy, strategy, tactics, and methods.

Strategy: A plan for the conduct of a major phase, or campaign, within a grand strategy for the overall conflict. A strategy is the basic idea of how the struggle of a specific campaign shall develop, and how its separate components shall be fitted together to contribute most advantageously to achieve its objectives. Strategy operates within the scope of the grand strategy. Tactics and specific methods of action are used in smaller scale operations to implement the strategy for a specific campaign.

Strike: A deliberate restriction or suspension of work, usually temporarily, to put pressure on employers to achieve an economic objective or sometimes on the government in order to win a political objective.

Tactic: A limited plan of action based on a conception of how, in a restricted phase of a conflict, to use effectively the available means of action to achieve a specific limited objective. Tactics are intended for use in implementing a wider strategy in a phase of the overall conflict. Tactic represent the tools you use to meet your goals. Tactics can be very small things too, like postering, leafleting, showing a movie, or sending a letter to the school paper. The distinction between goals and tactics can be confusing because you may need to achieve small goals in order to employ certain tactics.

Violence: Physical violence against other human beings that inflicts injury or death, or threatens to inflict such violence, or any act dependent on such infliction or threat. Some types of religious or ethical nonviolence conceive of violence much more broadly. This narrower definition permits adherents to those beliefs to cooperate with persons and groups that are prepared on pragmatic grounds to practice nonviolent struggle.

[Hugh]

PRINCIPLES OF STRATEGIC NONVIOLENT CONFLICT
(adopted from Ackerman and Kruegler, 1994)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/intro.htm

PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT

1. Formulate objectives
2. Strengthen organization
3. Gather materials
4. Get external help
5. Choose methods

PRINCIPLES OF ENGAGEMENT

6. Attack control
7. Mute violence
8. Alienate support
9. Maintain nonviolence

PRINCIPLES OF CONCEPTION

10. Assess at all levels
11. Offense/defence
12. Maintain continuity


KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/knowledge.htm

Whether just starting a nonviolent movement, or running an army of activists, you must be equipped with the skills and knowledge, in order to improve your offensive. CANVAS weaponry arsenal offers you many ways to improve your nonviolent army.

Weapons offered will help you to act in different situations in your own country (whether the nonviolent conflict is conventional or guerilla type), and are organized in relation to different situations in field.

More than 2000 pages of different manuals and training tools are available, and downloadable from this area. Your job is just to apply it.

Centuries ago, in his "Art of war" masterpiece, Sun Tzu said:

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

Knowledge is power, arm yourself for the battle!

CANVAS ARSENAL

In order to perform 198 methods of nonviolent action, movements worldwide are faced with similar problems. CANVAS conventional and non-conventional protocols are organized in order to define the problems, prepare the solution, and provide an immediate download of free manual or handbook related to the issue.

Canvas Analytic Centre offers:
CONVENTIONAL Weapons

Problem description (sort by problems)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_conv-prob.htm
- list of problems in planning and performing nonviolent campaign

Action response description (sort by responses)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/knowledge.htm
- suggestions and knowledge required in order to deal with exact problems

Weapon description (sort by weapons)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/knowledge.htm
- list of downloadable tools and manuals which can be applied immediately in order to deal with exact problems

Related topics:
knowledge or terminology in context of Nonviolent Conflict Wisdom (CANVASopedia)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/canvasopedia/dictionary.htm


NON-CONVENTIONAL Weapons

Problem description (sort by problems)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_ncon-prob.htm
- list of problems in planning and performing nonviolent campaign

Action response description (sort by responses)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/knowledge.htm
- suggestions and knowledge required in order to deal with exact problems

Weapon description (sort by weapons)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/knowledge.htm
- list of downloadable tools and manuals which can be applied immediately in order to deal with exact problems


STRATEGIC Weapons

Problem description (sort by problems)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_strat-prob.htm
- list of problems in planning and performing nonviolent campaign

Action response description (sort by responses)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/knowledge.htm
- suggestions and knowledge required in order to deal with exact problems

Weapon description (sort by weapons)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/knowledge.htm
- list of downloadable tools and manuals which can be applied immediately in order to deal with exact problems

[Hugh]

STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_strat-prob.htm

" You can see the entire Empire
if you sit at the top of the hill,
but if you go down to a village
you can see nothing but fences and pigs. "
(old Japanese Samurai wisdom)

In order to develop the strategy for nonviolent struggle, nonviolent movements are faced with huge trap - getting into struggle without strategic planning.

CANVAS strategic protocol is organized in order to define the problems, prepare the solution, and immediately download free manual or handbook related to the issue.

Problem description:
Problem 1:
How to think and plan your struggle strategically?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_strat-prob.htm#01

Setting the vision and mission of your movement, then picking the right tool for strategic thinking and planning.

A Toolbox of Thinking Skills by SRDS
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-strat/Toolbox_of_Thinking_Skills.doc

Interactive Mind Mapping by SRDS
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-strat/Interactive_Mind_Mapping.doc

Activist Tool Kit by Peace, Earth & Justice
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-strat/Activist_Tool_Kit.doc

Problem 2:
How to create your grand strategy?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_strat-prob.htm#02

Knowing the battlefield, and setting your strengths against your enemy's weaknesses.

From dictatorship to democracy by Gene Sharp
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-strat/From_Dictatorship_to_Dem.pdf

There are Realistic Alternatives by Gene Sharp
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-strat/Realistic_Alternatives.pdf

Principles of Strategic Nonviolent Conflict by Ackerman & Kruegler
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-strat/Principles_of_SNVC.doc

The Nonviolent Action Handbook by SOA
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-strat/Nonviolent_Action_Handbook.doc

[Hugh]

CONVENTIONAL SOLUTIONS

Problem description:

A. BUILDING

1. How to start a group which is going to be the core of your future movement?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_conv-prob.htm#01

Response/Solution:
Gather people together, reach a consensus, then focus on strategic planning.

Stages in the formation of groups & teams by SRDS
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Stages_in_Formation_of_Groups.doc

Campus Organizing Guide by Center for Campus Organizing
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Campus_Organizing_Guide.doc

Organising Guide - How to Start a Group by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/How_to_Start_Group.doc

2. How to increase the number of activists?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_conv-prob.htm#02

Response/Solution:
Recruit and train in order to upgrade your human resources base.
Volunteer Management by Regan McClure
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Volunteer_Management.doc

Recruitment and Outreach Manual by Community Action Training
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Recruitment-Outreach_Manual.pdf

Why to Recruit? by PCYF
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Why_To_Recruit.doc

Building your Membership and Support Base by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Building_Membership-Support_Base.doc

Mobilization Kit - Volunteers by Peace, Earth & Justice
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Mobilization_Kit-Volunteers.doc

3. How to build up a strong movement?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_conv-prob.htm#03

Response/Solution:
Building the grassroots organization brick-by-brick.

Manual for Party Building by NDI
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/NDI_Manual-Party_Building.pdf

Resistance in the Neighbourhood by Otpor
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Resistance_in_Neighbourhood.doc

Activist Tool Kit by Peace, Earth & Justice
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Activist_Tool_Kit.doc

4. How to secure access to critical material resources?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_conv-prob.htm#04

Canvas Total Index - Critical Resources by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/CTI_Critical_Resources.doc

Basic Elements of Grant Writing by Corporation for Public Broadcasting
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Basic_Elements_of_Grant_Writing.doc

Fundraising Resource Materials by Peggy Mathews
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Fundraising_Resources.pdf

Fundraising by PCYF
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Fundraising.doc

Developing and Writing Grant Proposals by US General Services Administration
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Developing_Grant_Proposals.doc

Grant Proposal Self Assessment Tool by U.S. Department of Energy - CAO
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/GrantSAT.pdf

Guide for Writing a Funding Proposal by S. Joseph Levine, Ph.D.
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Guide_for_Funding_Proposal.pdf

B. COMMUNICATION

5. How to communicate with wider audience?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_conv-prob.htm#05

Response/Solution: Defining your message.
What is a Message? by J. Brian O' Day
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/What_is_Message.doc

Message Development & Delivery by NDI
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Message_Development-Delivery.ppt


6. How to let the world know about your message?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_conv-prob.htm#06

Response/Solution: Build your communication strategy.
Canvas Total Index - Communications With a Wider Audience by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/CTI_Communications.doc


Let the World Know - A Beginner's Guide to Getting Media Coverage by NDI
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Let_the_World_Know.doc

Communications and Policy by Peace, Earth & Justice
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Communications_and_Policy.doc

Eleven Steps to Organizing a Media Event by Jason Salzman
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Eleven_Steps_to_Media_Event.doc

Media and Press Releases by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Media_and_Press_Releases.doc

Tips on Giving Speeches & Presentations by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Tips-Giving_Speeches.doc

Say it on the Radio by Skipp Porteous
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Say_it_on_the_Radio.doc

C. ACTION

7. When and How to organize the demonstration?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_conv-prob.htm#07

Response/Solution:
Picking the right time and the place with a proper campaign for the demonstration, and get prepared for your opponents violent response.

Planning the Demonstration by the Mass Defense Committee
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Planning_the_Demonstration.doc

Event Planning Made Easy by Mary McGhee
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Event_Planning_Made_Easy.doc

At the Demonstration by Mass Defense Committee
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/At_the_Demonstration.doc

You are Under Arrest by Ronald Kuby & William Kunstler
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/You_are_Under_Arrest.doc

An Activists' Guide on Basic First Aid by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Activists_Guide-Basic_First_Aid.pdf

CANVAS Demonstration Warning!
The value of demonstration as a method of nonviolent struggle is often misunderstood, if not fit within a wide strategy. Demonstration message is often just a number (of present protesters), which is more likely to be below the organizer's expectation, while the visual message is VIOLENT CONFLICT (for some reasons photos or videos of police brutality and few demonstrators throwing bricks are mostly the choice of media editors).


8. How to plan and organize public events and campaigns?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_conv-prob.htm#08
Response/Solution:
Events and campaigns are organized by using three main points: human resources , material resources and time planning.
Canvas Total Index - Symbolic Public Acts by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/CTI_Symbolic_Public_Acts.doc

Planning a Campaign - Know Your Terminology by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Planning_Campaign-Terminology.doc

Event Planning Made Easy by Mary McGhee
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Event_Planning_Made_Easy.doc

Eleven Steps to Organizing a Media Event by Jason Salzman
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Eleven_Steps_to_Media_Event.doc

Steps to making a Campaign by Act Up
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Steps_to_Making_Campaign.doc

Organize to Win by Jim Britell
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Organize_To_Win.doc

The SOA Watch Handbook for Non-Violent Action and Civil Disobedience Training
by SOA
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/The_SOA_Watch_Handbook.doc

Political Campaign Planning Manual by NDI (J. Brian O'Day)
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-conv/Political_Campaign_Planning.doc

[Hugh]

NON-CONVENTIONAL SOLUTIONS
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_ncon-prob.htm

Problem description:
- List of problems in planning and performing a nonviolent campaign -

1. How to act in Virtual Space?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_ncon-prob.htm#01

Response/Solution:
Conquer the Virtual Space by building a Web-site, Mailing Lists and virtual base of supporters.
Designing an Activist's Web Page by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-ncon/Designing_Activists_Web_Page.doc

The Virtual Activist Training Reader by NetAction
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-ncon/The_Virtual_Activist.doc

Using the Internet for Outreach and Organizing by NetAction
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-ncon/Using_Internet_for_Outreach.pdf


2. How to act with limited human and material resources?
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/weaponry/ars_ncon-prob.htm#02

Response/Solution:
To maximize effect of human and material resources use guerilla approach in propaganda when sending your message.

Tabling and Propaganda Distribution by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-ncon/Tabling-Propaganda_Distribution.doc

Postering by Canvas
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-ncon/Postering.doc

Start an Alternative Campus Newspaper by Rich Cowan
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-ncon/Start_Alternative_Newspaper.doc

Microradio by Stephen Dunifer
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-ncon/Microradio.doc

Guerilla Web Promotion & Marketing by Aesop Marketing Corporation
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-ncon/Guerilla.exe

Sending Out an SMS by Anneke Bosman
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/w-ncon/Sending_Out_SMS.pdf

[Hugh]

A Force More Powerful
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/

Films
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/films/index.php
A Force More Powerful, a three-hour documentary series, explores one of the 20th century's most important but least-understood stories - how nonviolent power has overcome oppression and authoritarian rule all over the world. Narrated by Ben Kingsley, and nominated for an Emmy, it premiered on PBS in September 2000. Download free study guide available here
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/films/afmp/educational.php

Bringing Down A Dictator, a one-hour documentary, tells the inside story of how Milosevic was brought down - not by smoke and flames, but by a courageous campaign of political defiance and massive civil disobedience. Winner of a Peabody Award, the film was narrated by Martin Sheen and premiered on PBS in March 2002. Download free discussion guide and study plans here.
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/films/bdd/eo/index.php

A Force More Powerful and Bringing Down A Dictator are available for sale on DVD, in both the NTSC and PAL television systems, and in the following languages: Arabic, Burmese, English, Farsi, French, Indonesian, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish. A Force More Powerful is also available in Italian. Click here for more information on how to order.
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/order.php

Confronting the Truth, a 73-minute documentary, examines how countries that have experienced massive human rights violations have created truth commissions to air and acknowledge the abuses so that victims can regain their dignity and society can be rebuilt. Available in English in NTSC and PAL, and in Kurdish, Serbo-Croatian and Arabic in PAL only. Click here for more information on how to order.
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/order.php

The feature-length documentary, Orange Revolution, captures the songs and spirit of a unique moment in Ukrainian history, when the 2004 stolen election brought citizens together on the streets for 17 days to defend their vote and the future of their country. Currently screening in film festivals worldwide, the DVD will be available for sale in the fall of 2007. For more information on Orange Revolution, click here.
http://www.orangerevolutionmovie.com/

Book
A Force More Powerful is published by St. Martin 's Press/ Palgrave. Originally released in hardback in 2000, the paperback edition came out in October 2001 and is available through this site, at a 10% discount, for $17.95. ORDER NOW
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/order.php

Computer Game
http://www.afmpgame.com/index.shtml

Can a computer game teach how to fight real-world adversaries—dictators, military occupiers and corrupt rulers, using methods that have succeeded in actual conflicts—not with laser rays or AK47s, but with non-military strategies and nonviolent weapons? Such a game, A Force More Powerful (AFMP), is now available. A unique collaboration of experts on nonviolent conflict working with veteran game designers has developed a simulation game that teaches the strategy of nonviolent conflict. A dozen scenarios, inspired by recent history, include conflicts against dictators, occupiers, colonizers and corrupt regimes, as well as struggles to secure the political and human rights of ethnic and racial minorities and women.

A Force More Powerful is the first and only game to teach the waging of conflict using nonviolent methods. Destined for use by activists and leaders of nonviolent resistance and opposition movements, the game will also educate the media and general public on the potential of nonviolent action and serve as a simulation tool for academic studies of nonviolent resistance.

A Force More Powerful is the only PC game about nonviolent struggle available today. AFMP puts the player directly into the role of planner for a nonviolent movement seeking social change-a role that is challenging, demanding, and sometimes even dangerous.

AFMP is primarily a game of strategy, emphasizing abstract ideas and planning rather than reflexes, coordination or quick thinking. Its realism does not depend on resource-hungry real-time animation, but on the accuracy of its underlying political models.


Designed for those with no previous gaming experience and only basic computer skills, the game emphasizes substance over the flashy action common to many popular games. A sophisticated visual interface includes 3D views and animation, but the game is compatible with hardware commonly available in the developing world.

Game play is governed by detailed interactive models-of strategic and political factors, ethnicity, religion, literacy, material well-being, media and communications, resource availability, economic factors, the role of external assistance, and many other variables. Tactics include such basics as training, fund-raising and organizing, as well as leafletting, protests, strikes, mass action, civil disobedience and noncooperation. Many game-play decisions involve selecting which characters and groups should take part in the strategy, and weighing the benefits of such actions relative to their costs.

Game play involves the player's side (the movement) and an opponent (the regime). The regime is created by the designer of each scenario, and controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI). The player takes charge of the movement's material and human resources, assesses the strengths and vulnerabilities of the adversary as well as those of the movement, then chooses goals, strategies and tactics.

Groups are the game's basic political units, representing the interests and agendas common to every complex struggle. Recruiting characters and building alliances is a principal game activity, involving labor, business, government, agricultural, academic and professional, media, religious and military categories.

Scenarios involve these characters, groups and alliances, which interact with and against each other, depending on the player's decisions, the particular circumstances of the scenario, and the actions of the regime.

Playing one or more of the packaged scenarios, users will learn strategic planning, formulation of goals (such as compelling free elections or the resignation of a dictator), and the choice of tactics (such as strikes, protests or boycotts).

Each scenario is played within a physical environment which affects the conflict. A national map shows regions, cities, mining, industrial and farming areas, rivers, mountains, ports, and the transportation network. Within regions, zoomed-in city views are detailed down to neighborhoods and buildings. However, a scenario may take place entirely within a single city or region.

AFMP includes a powerful suite of tools with which users can re-create real-life political struggles, or create their own from scratch. It is an unprecedented way for users to learn about the principles of strategic nonviolent struggle, by making the decisions themselves.

[Hugh]

Between Hard and Soft Power:The Rise of Civilian-Based Struggle and Democratic Change
http://www.state.gov/s/p/of/proc/34285.htm

Peter Ackerman, Chair, International Center for Nonviolent Conflict
Remarks to the Secretary's Open Forum
Washington, DC
June 29, 2004
Opening Remarks and Introduction

DR. ACKERMAN: I want to thank the Secretary's Open Forum and its chair Bill Keppler for this opportunity and honor to speak to you today. But before I start, I'd like to know are there any Fletcher graduates here? Okay, good. I'd like to thank all of you who are not Fletcher graduates, who are in the majority, for coming. Given the subject of my presentation, I think it's fair to say we are all here today for a common reason: because we care about democracy and human rights, and we want to explore new policy approaches. We typically see policy options through the dichotomous lens of hard and soft power. Hard power is the use of military force and economic measures, often in response to short and intermediate crises; its policies are generally more coercive. Soft power is what makes America's ideas and society more attractive, in the words of Joe Nye, and includes measures such as cultural exchanges and public diplomacy. Soft power is applied consistently over the long term, and is designed to encourage cooperation and accommodation.

The debate over the merits of each form of this power is decades, if not centuries, old. It has intensified certainly since 9/11. One side declares soft power irrelevant -- these are the enemies to whom the U.S. will never be attractive; while the other side claims our military initiatives could never succeed with the world hating America. Yet the debate is really two sides of the same coin: that foreign policy initiatives emanating from the United States or other major powers are all that counts in world affairs.


But there is another type power, civilian-based power, and that is what I am here to talk to you about today. Time and again over the past century it has been a major force in overcoming oppression, ending injustice, fostering democracy, human rights, civil society and political stability in virtually every region of the world. The difference between civilian-based power and hard and soft power is that civilian-based power is indigenous. It is not something controlled or imposed by great powers on others; civilian-based power is local, and it springs from the concerted, collective, strategic, nonviolent actions of large groups of people within a country or conflict.


So more precisely, what is the phenomenon of civilian-based power and how does it operate in key regions that U.s. policymakers are tasked to influence? The strategic use of civilian-based power is a way for people with no military alternative that's viable to fight for their rights and to liberate themselves from oppression. The tactics include acts of defiance available to ordinary citizens such as strikes, boycotts, mass protests, and every conceivable act of social and economic non-cooperation.


Now, the strategic side of this is to select and sequence these tactics based on a plan to undermine an authoritarian's pillars of support and control, including and especially the loyalty of the military and police. Nonviolent resistance operates on a disperse theory of force in society. That power is derived from the everyday lives of ordinary people. The dynamic unfolds when people refuse to obey and then make themselves ungovernable. This leaves the authoritarian's position untenable. By way of contrast, violent insurrection operates from a so-called decapitation theory: mobilize a guerrilla force to kill the leader, and change will come. The problem with the decapitation theory is that the probabilities of success are historically very low, and that the change that comes is rarely democratic, because the guerrilla groups invariably want the absolute power of those they have successfully deposed. Whereas nonviolent insurrections have tended to result in democratic transformation, because organizing many segments of the society for the resistance reinforces the civic structures needed to sustain a democracy.


Civilian-based resistance has been part of the greatest news-making events of the last quarter century. Here I would include, as Bill mentioned, the people power movement that overthrew Marcos in the Philippines; the 600 civic organizations that forced Botha from power, demanded DeKlerk's release of Mandela, and ended apartheid in South Africa; the "No" campaign that terminated Pinochet's reign of terror in Chile; the Solidarity movement that created the first trade union and ultimately led to the demise of Communist rule in Poland; and of course I should mention the civil rights movement in the United States and Gandhi's battle with the British now 75 years ago.


In the past few months, several of the conflicts involving civilian-based power have won notable victories. In November of last year, the corrupt administration of Edward Shevardnadze in Georgia was ended. What many don't know is that the final three weeks of mass demonstrations were the tip of the iceberg. Planning, training, and a series of small-scale nonviolent actions began as long as a year before. Interestingly, the media in the Middle East took special notice of the events in Georgia, and commentators there began to ask if this could happen in their own countries. And for those skeptical of Muslim receptivity to civilian-based resistance, I would call your attention to the events of May 6th of this year. On that day, Aslan Abashidze, the dictator of Ajaria, which was a breakaway province of Georgia, was forced out of power. What many don't know is that Ajarian students contacted Georgian students in the Kmara resistance movement to learn how to launch a nonviolent struggle in Ajaria. Planning and actions began as early as this past January.


Now, in our question-and-answer session I hope we'll be able to talk a little bit more about the importance of planning. Movements that are planned tend to be more successful that movements that are spontaneous. One of the interesting illustrations of this is when Lech Walesa came to celebrate the opening of our first movie, he made it very clear that there was a two-year prelude, a conceptual prelude, a planning prelude, to Solidarity before it was launched in the early '80s, and he considered this vital to that movement's success.


Now, in the current 12-month cycle, conflicts featuring the use of civilian nonviolent tactics have occurred or are occurring in Armenia, Belarus, Burma, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Cuba, Nepal, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Iran, Zimbabwe, and as I mentioned Georgia and Ajaria.


Nevertheless, in my experience the ideas of nonviolent resistance or the application of civilian-based power can be confusing because of the misconceptions people typically have. Now, what are these misconceptions? One important misconception is that civilian-based power, which requires nonviolent discipline in its execution, is the same as principled nonviolence. Nonviolent tactics are used for strategic purposes, whereas nonviolence described as an ethic is usually associated with pacificism. Successful, nonviolent resistance movements therefore don't depend on converting the oppressor. Instead the require a significant level of coercion, as authoritarians rarely give up power voluntarily.


Another misconception is that leaders of nonviolent movements must be saints. But except for Gandhi and King, virtually all leaders of nonviolent resistance movements would have considered a military option if it was viable. In fact, most movements, such as South Africa and Poland, evolved from failed violent insurrections. While leaders of civilian-based movements demand nonviolent discipline, they don't necessarily require this discipline for its moral value. They demand nonviolent discipline so their provocations create dissension among groups their adversaries depend on. A movement can't co-opt the loyalties of people they threaten to kill or maim.


Another widely held misconception is that the potential for civilian-based power is limited by the brutality of the dictator or oppressor. In fact, sometimes the most brutal dictators turn out to be the most brittle. No one would call Pinochet a pussycat. For the crimes they commit against their populations, these dictators can easily commit against their followers who they often believe in their paranoia are becoming traitors. In the end, no one trusts anyone in the inner circle, which leaves the dictator's position highly exploitable. In general, the press and foreign policy community tend to understate the vulnerabilities of oppressors at every point before they are ousted. That is why their loss of power by nonviolent means is always a shock to the so-called experts. I remember the day Milosevic fell a prominent newscaster on national TV said, "I don't understand how this could have happened -- he was just in power six days ago."


Another misconception that I'd like to discuss is that some policymakers assume that nonviolent resistance movements can be instigated from the outside. But that is most often not the case. Why? Because such movements are always developed at the grass-roots level involving males and females, old people and young people, of every economic and social strata. Also, these movements can and do experience severe repression. Civilians will not take risks unless there is a home-grown leadership that inspires them and that is credible. However, civilian-based movements can be nurtured by external assistance, and I'm going to talk about that later.


Now, one final misconception is that nonviolent resistance movements are just so-called peaceful mass protests in big cities. To be effective though, civilian-based power must include a variety of tactics, dispersed geographically. Otpor, the anti-Milosevic student movement, was successful because it operated in 70 cities and towns outside Belgrade. Mass protests may start a movement, but alone they cannot finish one. A variety of confrontations and provocations are necessary before the authoritarian's pillars of support will desert him.


While Iran, for example, is ripe for the expression of civilian-based resistance, a full range of tactics have yet to be applied throughout the country. Now, when this occurs, and I believe it will, events will take a surprising turn.


Now, what we are about to see is a short highlight reel of a documentary I produced with filmmaker and director Steve York. It chronicles the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, the first successful nonviolent resistance movement in the new millennium. This case study is full of interesting developments. For example, the opposition movement did not need igniting by the West. In fact, the Serbs will adamantly argue that they suffered a setback by the NATO bombing over Kosovo. However, to their credit, officials from America and Europe regrouped, and along with key NGOs provided importance assistance and training in the critical months that followed. Nevertheless, most experts assume that Milosevic, the butcher of the Balkans, would only fall by violent insurrection. In our interviews for the documentary, key officials generally conceded surprise at the suddenness of Milosevic's demise.


Now let's watch this 10-minute highlight reel.


(Video.)


DR. ACKERMAN: "Bringing Down A Dictator" was a 55-minute movie that aired on Public Broadcasting Corporation the Easter of 2002. I encourage you all to see the whole movie. It's very moving. There's a couple vignettes in there that are interesting. One is the point is made that the day Milosevic fell only two people died -- one of a heart attack at the parliament and the other of a traffic accident somewhere else in Belgrade.


And the other point that was made during that time: that it was very hard for the police to shoot at the crowds, because they may very well might be shooting at their own children.


Our first movie, "A Force More Powerful," was aired on PBS in September 2000 in two 90-minute segments. It chronicles six other stories of civilian-based power including, as Bill mentioned, India, Nashville, South Africa, Denmark, Poland and Chile. Both films have been seen by millions in over 70 countries.


Now, we wanted to tell these stories on film to show that even though they happened at different places and at different times, they are really the same story. And that story is, as Desmond Tutu expresses at the end of "A Force More Powerful," and I quote, "When people want to be free, there is nothing that can stop them."


But I am not here to extol the films, per se. But what has stunned us is the degree to which these stories of civilian-based power presented visually have resonated with so many others around the world. And, also, we have been pleasantly surprised that these films have been used as training tools. For example, three months after Milosevic fell, Steve York and I visited Belgrade. We showed members of the Serbian opposition one of the segments of "A Force More Powerful" on Pinochet's ouster in Chile. They told us that had they seen this film three years earlier there never would have been the bombings over Kosovo. They would have adopted a winning strategy much sooner, and Milosevic would have been long gone.


Another recent example was how the Georgian opposition used copies of "Bringing Down A Dictator." The following was the impact as reported by the Washington Post the day after Shevardnadze resigned: "The Georgian opposition movement modeled its campaign on the popular uprising that deposed Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, and even adopted its slogan. Opposition leaders traveled to Belgrade for advice, and brought their Serbian counterparts to Tblisi. Thousands of Georgians were trained in the techniques honed in Belgrade, and the opposition persuaded Georgia's independent television network to air a documentary on the Serbian uprising -- not once, but twice, in the last 10 days. 'Most important was the film,' said Ivane Merabishvili, general secretary of the National Movement party that led the revolt. All the demonstrators knew the tactics of the revolution in Belgrade by heart because they showed the film on their revolution. Everyone knew what to do. This was a copy of that revolution, only louder." In the remarks in the discussion we have afterwards, I'd like to talk a little bit more about training. But one of the things that we have also discovered thought the films and otherwise is the portability of these ideas and the way people use the knowledge form past conflicts to impact their own.


So, in conclusion, why am I here if after all civilian-based power must be homegrown to succeed? Why should the policy community be interested in something they can't fully control? I believe there are three interests this interest should be high for people in this room. First, the stakes are huge in conflicts involving or potentially involving civilian-based power and the use of nonviolent tactics. As your former colleague, Ambassador Mark Palmer, so eloquently discusses in his recent book, "Breaking the Real Axis of Evil," the governments that brutally repress their own people are the very same ones that traffic in weapons of mass destruction and support or harbor terrorist groups. Civilian-based resistance can reduce deadly violence and the appeal of terrorist groups because it offers a viable means of resistance for people suffering under oppression.


Second, while external forces cannot bring civilian-based movements into existence, there is a great deal that the international community can do to nurture and sustain them. These movements desperately need material resources, including funds and communications equipment. This provides vital independence and standing for dissident groups. Governments and NGOs need to pressure undemocratic regimes to make them hesitate to use repression against nonviolent movements. This can be done either with sanctions targeted against elites and by continuous advocacy by human rights organizations against such abuses. Opposition members can benefit from education in the theory and practice of civilian-based resistance. Now, this doesn't detail specific advice in the heat of battle, but the general transference of strategic knowledge has made and can make in the future an enormous difference to pro-democracy elements.


Finally, perhaps most important, the awareness and harnessing of civilian-based power can broaden the limited range of options that exist when policy is considered only in terms of hard and soft power. U.S. policymakers are consistently caught in the conundrum of accommodating regimes they wish were democracies. At the same time, from the border states of the former Soviet Union to the Middle East to Africa to Asia, civilians in these regimes are calling for reform. They are demanding governments that are accountable to their citizens. But they don't want the United States or anyone else telling them what to do or trying to impose something from the outside on their societies. What they want is the tools to multiply their power, and the international community should be ready to help.


Let me conclude by planting the thought that this perhaps could be a new realm for transatlantic cooperation. Thank you very much, and I'm glad to take questions. (Applause.)


MR. KEPPLER: Anyone wishing to either ask a question or provide their own views and comments, we ask you if you're sitting in front of a microphone to please press the button. If you're not, I would encourage you to go to the microphones that we have set up there in the back, so that your comments can be recorded and included in the transcript.


While we're waiting for the first person to come up and ask a question, I'd like to use the chairman's prerogative to ask you the first question. In regimes that are so totalitarian and so authoritarian, such as North Korea, does the concept and the possibility of nonviolent conflict -- is that a real possibility? And in the examples you've given us, while they are authoritarian governments, they were not as closed societies, they did not have the extensive social and political control that we do find in those regimes like North Korea. So using North Korea as a template, is it possible that nonviolent conflict is a viable possibility there?


DR. ACKERMAN: I think first I'd like to make a general comment. Nonviolent resistance is not a panacea. It's a set of tools, a set of weapons, that are used in conflict. And as we all know, conflict has a very uncertain outcome in all cases. And there's no question that the more closed the society is, the less political space there is, the more difficult it is for movement to begin.


But we have to remember that it's not the authoritarian that fires every shot at the population or undertakes every act of depredation. They need a group around them that can have the multiplier effect and have a larger impact. It's the loyalties of that group that are critical as targets for nonviolent resistance movements.


So with respect to North Korea, I would say two things. Number one, it's probably the toughest nut to crack for sure; but, at the same time, I don't think we fully understand the extent and potential for dissidence that might exist there. Certainly people aren't happy with their lives. I think we shouldn't assume that people rest easy with their lack of freedom, and if given alternatives and if exposed to possibilities, virtually anything is possible. You also have to work with the fact that a totalitarian regime that's been successful for long periods of time expects total cooperation, and when it doesn't receive it there's a great sense of disorientation that's exploitable. So I hope that gives you a reasonable answer.


MR. KEPPLER: The gentleman there.


Q My question is somewhat related to what Mr. Keppler said. How has your organization and yourself dealt with the psychological effect that the public in general have when they are under a regime such as Iraq, for example, or the Taliban? It's almost like a government terrorism, they sort of terrorize the people, and they're so afraid of doing anything, because it is a very closed type of society. We can't really keep watch on them. There's no press. So the media has a very limited way of putting out to people exactly what's going on. So how does an organization likes your tackle first sort of identify a group internally, and then try to cure that psychological oppression that they have in their own minds that it's almost impossible to get this type of nonviolent conflict in place in those countries?


DR. ACKERMAN: Excellent question. Let me start again by reiterating a point I just made. The targeting for a nonviolent resistance movement is the loyalty of the police to the military. They basically are the key pillars of support that every totalitarian regime requires, no matter how brutal they may be. And there's no question you're correct that the key use of repression is to basically harm the few to terrorize the many, and that's certainly what happened in Chile. But one of the interesting stories is Chile. The original seeds of resistance were focused on the idea of basically having a general strike in a copper mine. Again, a focused area, limited, and of course Pinochet said if you do this we will kill those who do this, and it was a very easy target for oppression. So what the movement did instead was that they had a day they designated in the capital where people would drive at half speed and walk at half speed, and at the end of the day they would lift their windows up and start banging pots and pans. And the purpose of this is that you can't arrest everybody who's walking at half speed and driving at half speed, even if you conclude it was half speed. But what you did create was a sense of self-identification and mutual reinforcement of the dissatisfaction that exists and the possibilities of larger and more aggressive acts. And certainly the banging pots and pans, unstoppable by a totalitarian regime, reinforced that notion. This happened month after month. And what started to happen as a result is that people became less afraid and were able to coordinate more aggressive activities.


Let me also spend a second and I think -- when do we finish here? Let me spend a second talking a little bit more about the theoretical elements here with an illustration. If I lined up in Iraq the entire Republican Guard before the war, and say, Look, all you have to do is walk from this side of this room to that side of this room, and you'll be free and there will be no more depredations on yourself or your family, there will be no more fear, and Saddam will go, I think it's fair to say all but those who receive the greatest awards would probably take the step, if they believed they could be secure in that process. Now let's change the game for a second, and say, Well, walk from here to there, fine, but if 90 percent don't walk -- if at least 10 percent don't walk with you, then those who take the step off the wall -- they're going to be killed. So you say to yourself, Well, I'm sure 10 percent, since everybody knows it's 10 percent, will walk with us -- I'll take that risk.


Now start raising the number from 10 percent to 20, to 30, to 40 -- suddenly the risks multiply dramatically. And when you get to 70 or 80 percent have to walk with you, then it becomes critical for you to know who's going to walk and who's going to not walk. And what you're finding here, that the issue as to whether this regime stands or falls is not the brutality of Saddam or Pinochet or Milosevic, it's how well they can communicate with each other with confidence that everybody is going to walk.


The virtue of nonviolent resistance tactics is that allows for that kind of communication, within the inner circles and between the inner circles and the population at large. And that's what creates the disintegration of the loyalties to the dictator.


MR. KEPPLER: The lady in the back, please.


Q My name is I come from Howa Ibrahim (ph), and I come from American University. I'm a Humphrey Fellow, just rounding up my program. I'm going back to my country. I think you give me what I need to go back, and to go back well.


My question is one interesting thing about defeat is the fact there is no national leadership. How do they organize? How does the group stand, and how do you have the centralization and achieve a result without that leadership?


DR. ACKERMAN: That's also a fantastic question. And I would say that historically leadership has taken many different forms. You have a charismatic leader like Gandhi, you had in the Danish resistance of the Nazis 14 people who nobody knew who they were -- they were totally anonymous and hidden. But the key in both cases is that people had to know that those around them would respond to that leadership. And so you're exactly correct: for the leadership to be -- there has to be leadership, because there has to be guidance, because premeditation and planning and strategic thinking are critical to the success of these movements. But the leadership has to impact the general population in a decentralized way. So between the leadership that might be in the center and the general population there have to be cells of leadership, like the 600 civic organizations in South Africa. So it's very much -- that was really the -- those civic organizations were really the crucial fault group that basically made it very difficult for the apartheid regime to stay in power.


In "A Force More Powerful," we tell the story of the economic boycott in Port Elizabeth as a key story to illustrate what had happened throughout South Africa. So a leadership at the top, a leadership that disperses throughout the society are all critical. Whether it's charismatic or not is I think idiosyncratic to the circumstances.


Q (Off mike) -- faxes were used in China, cell phones are being used in decentralized communications and organizing.


DR. ACKERMAN: I'm glad you asked that. The International Center for Nonviolent Conflict had a one-day seminar with people from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories to create and to explore what technologies would actually create advantages for civilian-based movements. There is no question that these technologies are democraticizing. They give an advantage to the -- they enable decentralized activity. They create, if you will, a digital concept of the right of assembly. But I'll leave the question telling you what the best idea that came out of that seminar was. It was to -- and let's get back to North Korea, which -- and the truth that happened afterwards is as interesting as this, as what we conceived of. Let's say you drop 10,000 boxes or distributed somehow in North Korea. The boxes contain the following: 100 feet of string, a balloon, a helium canister and microwave devices, radio devices that can communicate. Tie the string to the tree. Tie the other end of the string to the balloon. Attach the electronic device to the balloon, stick the helium canister in the balloon, break it. The balloon rises 100 feet in the air, and you have an unlimited number of transmission towers. Provide in addition the ability to transmit with devices, hand-held devices -- suddenly you have an interesting opportunity.


I think right after we had this meeting there was -- I don't know if you remember the story of somebody tried to send a balloon over into North Korea from South Korea. So these might be far-fetched to some, but they are unquestionably enabling. Anything that creates the ability to communicate outside the reach of an authoritarian is something that is promotive of these kinds of movements.


MR. KEPPLER: The gentleman with the tan jacket, please.


Q (Off mike) -- Reform Party of Syria. As we all know, Syria is one of those tough nuts to crack. We have learned in the past few months, being active in politics and being active inside Syria as well, that the Syrians inside Syria, the dissidents, their hands are tied, and they have not been to shake the tree, as we say. And so what they have done is they've come back to us -- first in the form of, Help us free some prisoners -- which we have done. We've contacted Congress, we have letters going out, et cetera, et cetera. We are doing our best. But now the contacts have come back to us, where they are asking for help. They are saying, We need you, because we don't seem to be able to really do anything that is effective inside the country. And that is novel in its texture because, as you said, you either have a free country inside -- relatively free -- people can do what they've done, as we have seen, or anything else that comes from outside could be violent and therefore it doesn't fall in that category.


So my question is we are experiencing something new -- we as dissidents inside Syria and outside Syria -- that communications going back and forth and trying to help them inside, because we do have certain things that we can help them with. And my question is: How do you see this kind of -- how do you see our role as dissidents outside develop into trying really to accomplish something where people are really able -- but whose hands are tied in the sense that they cannot do the things that we've seen in the movie people can do?


DR. ACKERMAN: I'll answer not as an expert on the situation in Syria, because I'm not, but I'll just share with you that you're not the first person representing a particular part of the world that's come to us with this kind of request, and the request is we have a nascent movement, we have things we can do, we have restrictions on what we can do. We need a concept of what to do next that's part of a larger strategy. We need to have people help us materially.


Now, as far as you're concerned, as dissidents, I would encourage you to try to understand the parts of these movements that we studied that are relevant to you. I would try to understand what in the past relative to your circumstance -- I'd try to understand what in the past have been the critical variables of success, like the importance of unity, the importance of declaring a certain goal that basically resonates with the entire population. So, for example in the case of Solidarity they didn't ask for the end of communism -- and, believe me, they felt as much under the gun as you're expressing today. As a matter of fact, when Lech Walesa was with us, he made the point when he saw our movie -- he basically said, first, that your movie is inadequate -- my heart fell through my stomach here. And he said the reason it was inadequate was because it didn't make the point that there were one million Soviet troops on his soil when the Solidarity movement began. But he didn't define the movement's goals in terms of ending communist rule -- they just wanted a free trade union. They received a free trade union, and then within four months 10 million people signed up. That's the equivalent of 70 million people signing up for one of the unions in America within four months. So picking goals -- unity, marshaling your own resources, understanding how you can use the empathy of the international community, understanding where the regime's weaknesses are -- who do they depend on for their support in their terror, or just to get the everyday work done, understanding that repression will come back and dealing and organizing with that repression by having redundancy of leadership. These are things that were done in the past, learning how to think about the sequencing of tactics -- not just mass protests. One of the things you didn't see in this movie is that just before this major coming together in Belgrade, there was a massive strike in the coal mines, which provided a huge proportion of the electricity around Serbia. So there's a variety of tactics that are available. So I wouldn't want to gainsay to you how difficult it is. But at the same time I don't think you should lose hope to believe that there aren't things that can't be done internally if you think them through. And you think them through has a sequence of activities. So I invite you to talk with our center, and see if we have anything that might be of use, and to think through these issues because I think what would have happened elsewhere does resonate -- should resonate with what you need.


MR. KEPPLER: Peter, you want to advise people about your website, and also about the handouts that are available.


DR. ACKERMAN: You've done it. We have handouts about the center outside. I don't know if we have a few tapes. Of course if you ask us for tapes of the two movies, we will be delighted to provide them.

I'd like to tell you, if I can, for one second about another project we're working on that might be of considerable interest here. Because groups like yours have come to us, frustrated with not quite understanding what to do next, what we decided to do is to create a nonviolent resistance simulation game. We've hired a firm, called Breakaway Games, that has done civilization games, and has also worked for the Department of Defense on conflict issues. They're in the gaming business. And we have been working with them now for a year on simulations of nonviolent resistance movements. So you'll be able to take your own country and basically recreate it in this game. It's demography, it's geography, it's key institutions, the predilections of every member in that society you can identify. You can lay all that out, and then you could actually sort of choose up sides, and one side would play the regime and one side would play those who were in the resistance, and continuously work through a variety of tactics and to see what the impact is on a multi-variable -- when I'm saying multi-variable, I'm talking about hundreds of variables -- very sophisticated model as to what will work and not work in the particular conflict you're in. Now, the importance of that is not just to transfer knowledge about what might work or what might not work, but also to create cohesion and to create a sense of possibilities amongst people who basically have difficulty seeing the next steps. This game will be generally distributed throughout the world. It will be in open architecture form. It will be usable on paper or on computer. And we think it will be incredibly important for those who are working to free themselves from oppression.

MR. KEPPLER: The gentleman down in front, please.

Q Yes, my name is Karim Abdian (ph), and I do teach nonviolence to various ethnic groups in Iran and the Middle East. My question to you is that in a country like Serbia, where you have a somewhat uniform country -- and if we look at the Middle East you have countries that are composed of several ethnic groups, and their end states are not necessarily the same, you know? So you go into these countries, and you say, We offer nonviolence, but that does not offer them an end state. You need to tell them what the end state is. If you apply non-conflict or peaceful moves, the end state for example is the rights of self-determination, just like in Iraq as you know in Iraq this issue is alive today - with the Turks, with the Turkomens, with the Asyrians and Syria and Iran and Turkey, Chechnya, and all these countries this is an issue that is: What is the end result? What is the end state?

So I believe, and my question to you is how do we convince the international community to make sure that these countries either subscribe to the fact that the rights of self-determination will be reserved for these ethnic groups? In Iran, as you know, I am from Iran, and various organizations -- the Turks, the Kurds, the Baluchs -- they have their own political priorities, but they don't want to work in unison. They want to make sure that after liberation that each ethnic group succeeds in autonomy or self-rule or independence -- whatever the right of self-determination is.

So my question to you is: How do you augment the nonviolence means with the end state of the rights of self-determination in multi-ethnic societies?

DR. ACKERMAN: That's again an excellent question. I think -- (short audio break for tape flip) -- we only showed a 10-minute segment on Serbia, and that isn't the whole rich experience of nonviolent resistance, but let's stay back with that for a moment. The reason why Milosevic stayed in power as long as he did was because there were 14 factions at least within that society that couldn't unify. It's only when they decided to unify that his power became more tenuous. They decided to unify when they really believed they had a method of fighting that was going to be effective. So it's sort of like a chicken-and-egg thing that ultimately created a virtuous circle.

I don't think people from the outside, whether it's for Iran or for Iraq, or other countries that you might think of, can tell people why they should unify. They have to decide why they should be unified, and usually it's around some idea that they want to create an end state of constitutional democracy, because these methods of nonviolent conflict, as I said in my prepared remarks, are really best in service, because they require the participation of so many elements of society -- best in service of democratic values and ideals. So when the country internally decides it wants to have as an end state that kind of society, the added value is to basically say, Well, here's how you can do this through nonviolent resistance methods. Then the two elements get linked. But you can't impose that from the outside. It has to be understood.

Now, one of the things that we do as an organization is that we would love to speak to as many Iranians that are interested, or Iraqis that are interested, or Palestinians that are interested, to talk about what the possibilities are of nonviolent resistance -- but they must ultimately decide how these techniques are going to be used.

MR. KEPPLER: The gentleman at the microphone please.

Q Dr. Ackerman, thank you very much for your presentation. My name is Nasir Rajeti from National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates. I'm from Iran, and I am sure many of the audience here know that Iran is now ruled under religious dictatorship and we in Iran lost over 100,000 people when Iran faced -- people have been hanged on cranes in public. And I'm asking you a question on the anniversary of the Iranian students uprising 1999, 2002, and I assure you this is the beginning of that anniversary. In a country that doesn't buy any international law, how could a nonviolent movement get to its end? In Iran students are now on the street. They're asking for a referendum. But what would be the role of the international community to support this movement?

DR. ACKERMAN: I think again, as I said in my prepared remarks, and I've tried to repeat here, is that it's less important what the international community does and it's much more important what people inside Iran choose to do and the risks they choose to take. I would not for a minute in any way minimize the impact of that kind of terror on a population. But at the same time, people do have choices. This is a society that is now populated predominantly by people below the age of 30. From what I understand, there's a substantial amount of disaffection with the clerics, even amongst other clerics; that not all the police and the military, the Revolutionary Guard and others are equally loyal to the center. The question is: How do people get together and think about what they can do? Now, what I did say in my prepared remarks is that movements that tend to be dispersed -- geographically, demographically -- but organized with a common purpose and a similar strategy, usually linked around one overriding goal -- I mentioned the free trade union movement in Poland. The beauty of what Gandhi did is he created the famous salt march, because everybody had to pay a tax on salt, and this mobilized people which for centuries had not been mobilized before. And somebody might -- if I was here 75 years before with this knowledge, somebody might have said to me, Well, Peter, you know, we're sitting with the Brits having controlled us, and the Amritsar massacre in 1924, which killed 400 people, and so this is a -- you know, this regime is impenetrable -- what should we do? And if there was no Gandhi, I would say, Pick a goal that people could rally around. One goal might be the veto, the parliamentary veto the Guardian Council has. It's a simple issue, people relate to it. I'm not sure it resonates, but if it does that might be one or there might be others that might create a unity of purpose inside Iran. That is critical for success.

With respect to the international community, they come second. Knowledge about what to do internally is really the most important thing that will turn the tide of that kind of resistance. Don't expect the international community to create something that can't first be created internally.

Q You mentioned something about violent overthrows resulting in negative outcomes because those who conducted the overthrow don't want to relinquish their power, or don't want to relinquish the violent means to maintain power after the overthrow has occurred. In regards to these nonviolent regime changes, how do you feel about the governments that have come into place, for example post-Shevardnadze in Georgia, and there's always some questions -- I'm not exactly sure, but there's been some questions about Kostunica's -- how deep the reform has actually gone there as far as the military establishment. And I'm curious if you could just comment on the governments that have been put in place after those nonviolent regime changes.

DR. ACKERMAN: Well, again, a very interesting question. And I think that many of them are works in progress, but many of them are substantial successes -- South Africa I'd say we consider a success at this point, although it would be better to see a much more competitive two-party system. I think the sad thing is you saw Djindjic who was represented in the movie -- he was is the assassinated -- a great man, a wonderful man, and very sad what happened. And but at the same time we recently I believe just had an election in Serbia that a moderate I think prevailed. When we go to Georgia, it's a work in progress. You know, what happened in Ajaria was very hopeful. We'll see if the current leadership basically strengthens the democratic elements or not.

If we go to Poland, if we go to all of Eastern Europe, where these types of tactics were used and predominated, I think we have another success story. You tell me how you feel about the Philippines post-Marcos. It's up again and down again. I think though if you basically take the group of those regimes that have changed by virtue of civilian-based resistance, and you take those few that have changed versus violent resistance, you'll find a marked difference in outcome -- the former being much more likely to create a democratic result.

Q (Off mike) -- revolution. What went wrong in 1956?

DR. ACKERMAN: I don't know. My sense is it turned into a series of street battles in Budapest, not too different from what happened in Poland in 1970. And when you do that you basically create a target, a very rich concentrated target for the police and military to basically throw out.

The key to a nonviolent resistance movement is staying power. That's why it needs to be spread. You want to provoke the police -- you don't want to threaten them, you want to provoke them -- provoke them and communicate with them, and break down their loyalties. It's a much different process than a few people manning barricades trying to basically in some idealistic hope think you're going to basically overthrow through violent methods the people who are ultimately going to have more power than you will -- more military power than you will.

Thanks very much. (Applause.)

MR. KEPPLER: Peter, thank you -- excellent.

This really is a very important topic, and certainly very essential to consider this approach in addressing global conflicts. We could go on for a couple of hours, but unfortunately we can't.

Today's program wraps up the program year for the Secretary's Open Forum 2003-2004. I hope you've enjoyed the programs, found them meaningful and worthwhile. We've tried to make this a genuine "open forum." We've had a diversity of speakers and topics. Among the diverse speakers we've had were William Kristol, George Soros, author Mark Palmer, World Bank President Jim Wolfensohn, IDB President Enrique Iglesias, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Christopher Harnisch, and most recently UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie. We've addressed a broad range of issues. We've tackled international and regional economics, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, the plight of refugees throughout the world. We've talked about the uses of hard and soft power to oust dictators and oppressive governments and regimes, and how to promote democracy. We've also talked about the efficacy of public diplomacy in promoting U.S. policy goals and objectives in our conduct of foreign relations.

In the year to come, I'm going to be looking to you to come up with some other ideas for topics and themes and speakers that interest you. You'll find the Open Forum and its chairman very receptive, because we do want to do programs that are topical, relevant, compelling and, most important, that will have an impact on our policymakers here in our building.

The role of chairman is for one year. My year will be up this fall. Within the next week or two, we'll be announcing and soliciting for candidates for the position of Chairman of the Open Forum. So if this is something that you might be interested in doing, please look for Department Notices, broadcast e-mails, and signs throughout the building about how you can be nominated to be chairman and serve for a one-year period here at the Open Forum.

I'd like to conclude today's program by once again thanking our Distinguished Guest Speaker, Dr. Peter Ackerman, for providing some very stimulating and thought-provoking ideas, and hopefully "soft power" will at least take its place with "hard power" in the conduct of diplomacy. Thank you again, Peter. (Applause.) And I want to thank you all again for joining us. Hope to see you again this fall.

[Hugh]

Non violence training project
http://www.nonviolence.org.au/resources.html

Resources

Trainers' Resource Manual
http://www.nonviolence.org.au/manual.html
http://www.nonviolence.org.au/downloads/trainers_resource_manual_may05.pdf

Drawing on decades of experience in training for social change, the Nonviolence Training Project Trainers' Resource Manual offers a comprehensive reference for people who want to facilitate change through activist education.

Available in both hard-copy and downloadable pdf format, the Resource manual is an essential resource for trainers, campaigners, organisers and community workers who want to design and deliver empowering workshops in the tradition of nonviolent social change.

On-line resource library

This part of the site draws together some on-line resources on the history, theory and practice of nonviolence, including case studies, training agendas and information on planning and strategy. Whether you're new to nonviolence or an experienced trainer, if you have a workshop to present, an action to organise or a campaign to plan, we hope will this section will provide some inspiration.

Why nonviolence?
Nonviolence is a powerful and effective approach to social change which seeks to transform society using means which are consistent with the ends of a fair, just and peaceful world. http://www.nonviolence.org.au/why.html

About power
The idea of power is fundamental to the success of nonviolence as a method for change.
http://www.nonviolence.org.au/power.html

History
While history is littered with the dates of conquests and defeats on the battlefield and the exploits of the great military commanders, the methods of struggle available to and commonly used by ordinary people to reign in the excesses of rulers have been less well documented.
http://www.nonviolence.org.au/history.html

Case studies
The presentation and discussion of case studies is a long standing tradition within nonviolence training.
http://www.nonviolence.org.au/studies.html


Planning & strategy
Where do you start if you have a forest to save, a war to resist or a dictator to undermine? And what steps should you follow?
http://www.nonviolence.org.au/planning.html

Training
Nonviolence training has been a cornerstone of organised nonviolent resistance since Gandhi and King.
http://www.nonviolence.org.au/training.html

Links
This page provides additional links to Australian and international organisations which provide training and support for nonviolent activists, publications relevant to the study and practice of nonviolence and websites which promote nonviolence.
http://www.nonviolence.org.au/links.html

[Hugh]

Resources
http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/resources.shtml

[Hugh]

Nonviolent Struggle - 50 Crucial Points A Strategic Approach to Everyday Tactics 8mb
http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/various/Nonviolent_Struggle-50CP.pdf

http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/special/nvstruggle.htm


Abstract

This book is a field guide for waging a strategic nonviolent struggle – it offers a rich and diverse array of practical information that nonviolent activists need to know. The user-friendly format of the book complements the presentation of the content in thematic chapters, which are organized around answering key questions that range from techniques of daily management to strategic planning. Written by those who successfully fought against repressive regimes using strategic nonviolent action, the book is designed as a ready-to-use tool for front-line practitioners who work in nondemocratic, and sometimes violent environments, as well as those who work in established democracies. It is based on firsthand experience from the struggles in Serbia and Georgia, and the lessons learned in Ukraine, Belarus, Zimbabwe and other countries.

The book fills the gap between the tremendous theoretical insights about strategic nonviolent conflict developed by scholars over the past several decades and the accumulated experience of front-line practitioners. This is achieved by creating a synergy between, on the one hand, academic knowledge and the expertise of authors and of outside participants in the project, and, on the other hand, the lived experience of successful activists and leaders. Likewise, the book's content and format build a bridge between the strategic level and the often "heavy" book design of theoretical works, and the "cook-book" approach of existing manuals for political and public-interest campaigns, which mostly focus on tactical issues.

The focus is firmly on practical questions. Crucial points about waging strategic nonviolent struggle appear as "how to" questions:

How do you plan symbolic public actions successfully with just a few supports?
How do you recruit, train, and retain pro-reform activists?
How do you manage scarce assets, such as volunteers and material resources?
How do you plan your campaign and run it with constant feedback-loop management?
How do you prepare to overcome the powerful influence of fear?
How do you minimize the effectiveness of repressive mechanisms, including contaminants, surveillance and police repression?
From this book, those considering launching a strategic nonviolent struggle in any environment will find enough information to steer away from making the most common mistakes and refocus towards selecting realistic objectives, structuring an organization efficiently, and effectively influencing public attitudes to the point where ordinary citizens are willing to participate in the struggle.

The topics covered include the theory of political power, fundamentals of strategic and detailed tactical planning, message development and management of nonviolent actions and campaigns.

The book is compatible with already existing and readily available resources for use in this field, such as the writings from the Albert Einstein Institution and the new computer game, "A Force More Powerful".

In short, this book takes a strategic approach to the problems of day-to-day implementation of nonviolent struggle encountered by pro-reform movements in all environments, from those working for justice in established democracies to those working to end repression or occupation.

CANVAS CORE CURRICULUM

http://www.canvasopedia.org/files/various/Core_Curriculum-Students_Book.pdf

http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/special/core.htm

The CANVAS Core Curriculum provides a wealth of information on a broad range of topics relevant to waging nonviolent conflict. It combines theoretical insights about nonviolent struggle with practical knowledge that is based on the authors’ and activists' real world experience.

The presentation is organized in a workshop format, and each chapter serves as a lesson plan. These lesson plans were created, tested and refined by the authors through their experience leading workshops. The curriculum contains helpful graphics, tips, and important notes to make sure that valuable information is retained. Many of the lessons also contain practical exercises, which are designed so that activists can create “products” that will be directly useful in their struggles.

The Curriculum consists of three books:

The CANVAS Core Curriculum Students Book (currently available)
The CANVAS Core Curriculum Teachers Book (available in early 2008)
The Strategic Estimate Workbook (available in early 2008)

CANVAS Core Curriculum Students Book

The content of the curriculum is divided into three parts:

I. Theory and its applications: The goal of these lessons is to provide a concrete framework for people to understand how nonviolent action works. First, all movements start with the desire for change, so we offer a methodology to help groups develop their vision for what they want to achieve (Lesson 1). We then address how nonviolent movements can gain the power to achieve that vision. By emphasizing that political power comes from people’s ongoing consent and obedience to their society’s political, economic, and social systems, it becomes clear that nonviolent movements can gain power and create change by shifting people’s consent and obedience patterns (Lesson 2). In order to do this, nonviolent resisters must understand the roles that key organizations and institutions (which we call “pillars of support”) play in their society (Lesson 3), what people’s motivations are for consent and obedience (Lesson 4), how nonviolent movements produce change in society (Lesson 5), and the tactics and methods that nonviolent movements have at their disposal (Lesson 6).

II. Planning considerations: There is rarely victory for nonviolent movements without a strategic plan. Therefore, an understanding of basic strategic principles (Lesson 7) as well as tools and techniques to analyze their past and current situation (Lesson 8 and Lesson A1) is important as movements develop their strategic plans. An essential part of those plans will be communications. How do movements effectively communicate what they stand for? Developing effective messages and analyzing audience segments (Lesson 9) and understanding the tools and types of targeted communications (Lesson 10) are essential. Targeted communication is one of the most important parts of any movement’s strategic plan.

III. Organizational and operational considerations: Nonviolent movements are faced every day with stresses in the areas of leadership (Lesson 11), fear-management (Lesson 13), and avoiding contamination (Lesson 14), so they need to be prepared. They also need to be tactically innovative and choose issues and actions that put their opponents in dilemmas (Lesson 12). Finally, management of key resources (material resources, human resources, time, and knowledge) are critical to operating a nonviolent movement or campaign. The advanced campaign management package (Lessons A2, A3, A4, and A5) addresses these issues.


http://aeinstein.org/organizationsde07.html

Title: On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: Thinking About the Fundamentals
Author: Robert Helvey

http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/OSNC.pdf

http://aeinstein.org/organizations1fda.html

Contents: TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 THEORY OF POWER
CHAPTER 2 PILLARS OF SUPPORT
CHAPTER 3 OBEDIENCE
CHAPTER 4 MECHANISMS AND METHODS OF NONVIOLENT STRUGGLE
CHAPTER 5 PROBLEM SOLVING
CHAPTER 6 STRATEGIC ESTIMATE
CHAPTER 7 OPERATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
CHAPTER 8 PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS
CHAPTER 9 INSIGHTS INTO STRATEGIC THINKING
CHAPTER 10 FEAR
CHAPTER 11 LEADERSHIP
CHAPTER 12 CONTAMINANTS
CHAPTER 13 INFLUENCING EXTERNAL AUDIENCES
CHAPTER 14 CONSULTATION AND TRAINING

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Glossary of Important Terms in Nonviolent Struggle
Appendix 2 Methods of Nonviolent Action
Appendix 3 Example of Problem Solving Using Staff Study Format
Appendix 4 Suggested Format for Preparing a Strategic Estimate
FIGURES
Figure 1 Monolithic Model of Power
Figure 2 Pluralistic Model of Power
Figure 3 Pillars of Support
Figure 4 Pulling vs. Pushing Pillars of Support
Figure 5 Loyalty Pie
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Title: From Dictatorship to Democracy
Author: Gene Sharp

http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/FDTD.pdf

http://aeinstein.org/organizations98ce.html

Contents: FROM CHAPTER 1...

In recent years various dictatorships—of both internal and external origin—have collapsed or stumbled when confronted by defiant, mobilized people. Often seen as firmly entrenched and impregnable, some of these dictatorships proved unable to withstand the concerted political, economic, and social defiance of the people.

Since 1980 dictatorships have collapsed before the predominantly nonviolent defiance of people in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Slovenia, Madagascar, Mali, Bolivia, and the Philippines. Nonviolent resistance has furthered the movement toward democratization in Nepal, Zambia, South Korea, Chile, Argentina, Haiti, Brazil, Uruguay, Malawi, Thailand, Bulgaria, Hungary, Zaire, Nigeria, and various parts of the former Soviet Union (playing a significant role in the defeat of the August 1991 attempted hard-line coup d’état).

In addition, mass political defiance has occurred in China, Burma, and Tibet in recent years. Although those struggles have not brought an end to the ruling dictatorships or occupations, they have exposed the brutal nature of those repressive regimes to the world community and have provided the populations with valuable experience with this form of struggle.

The collapse of dictatorships in the above named countries certainly has not erased all other problems in those societies: poverty, crime, bureaucratic inefficiency, and environmental destruction are often the legacy of brutal regimes. However, the downfall of these dictatorships has minimally lifted much of the suffering of the victims of oppression, and has opened the way for the rebuilding of these societies with greater political democracy, personal liberties, and social justice.



Correcting Common Misconceptions About Nonviolent Struggle
http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/misconceptions.pdf

A handout sheet addressing common misconceptions about nonviolent action and answering some frequently asked questions.

198 Methods of Nonviolent Action
http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/198_methods-1.pdf

Practitioners of nonviolent struggle have an entire arsenal of "nonviolent weapons" at their disposal. Listed are 198 of them, classified into three broad categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention.

Title: There Are Realistic Alternatives
Author: Gene Sharp

http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/TARA.pdf

http://aeinstein.org/organizationsbc25.html

Contents: FROM CHAPTER 1...

Violence in society and politics, whether in the form of war, terrorism, dictatorship, oppression, usurpation, or genocide, is widely recognized as a grave problem.

All the proposals to solve the problem of violence, or particular expressions of it, have been unsuccessful. It is probable that the problem remains unsolved because such proposals have been based on inadequate understandings of its nature. Without understanding a problem, it is difficult, if not impossible, to solve it.

The objective of this essay is to explore a different perspective on the nature of the problem of widespread violence in society and politics that suggests what will be required for its resolution.

We need to analyze the conditions under which it will be possible to reduce drastically the reliance on military and other violent means of conflict. We need to examine why violence is so widely regarded as necessary for good causes as well as for bad ones, and how fundamental change away from that syndrome might be achieved.

The perspective in this essay is simple, but perhaps fundamental to solving the problem of violence in political and international conflicts.

It is important to recognize that conflict in society and politics is inevitable and, in many cases, desirable. Some conflicts can be resolved by mild methods, such as negotiation, dialogue, and conciliation–methods that involve compromise. These are feasible when the issues at stake are not fundamental. Even then, the resolution of a conflict by negotiation is more often influenced by the relative power capacities of the contenders than by reasoned joint assessment of where justice lies.

However, in many conflicts fundamental issues are, or are believed to be, at stake. These are “acute conflicts.” They are not deemed suitable for any resolution that involves compromise.

In acute conflicts at least one side regards it as necessary and good to wage the conflict against hostile opponents. Acute conflicts are often believed to be waged to advance freedom, justice, religion, or one’s civilization, or to resist and defeat hostile violence. Hostile violence may be applied to impose oppression, injustice, or dictatorship. Hostile violence also may be applied to attack one’s moral or religious principles or human dignity, or even to threaten the survival of one’s people.

In acute conflicts at least one side regards submission, capitulation, or defeat as disastrous for its principles, convictions, whole society, and at times even to life itself. In such situations, people believe it is necessary to wage the conflict as strongly as possible.









Title: The Anti-Coup
Author: Gene Sharp and Bruce Jenkins

http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/TAC-1.pdf

http://aeinstein.org/organizationsd063.html

Contents: FROM CHAPTER 1...

Supporters of political democracy, human rights, and social justice have good reasons to be alarmed about coups. These abrupt seizures of the state apparatus have occurred with great frequency in recent decades. Coups have overthrown established constitutional democratic systems of government, halted movements toward greater democracy, and have imposed brutal and oppressive regimes. Coups d��tat are one of the main ways in which new dictatorships are established. Coups may also precipitate civil wars and international crises. Coups remain a major unsolved defense problem.

A coup is a rapid seizure of physical and political control of the state apparatus by illegal action of a conspiratorial group backed by the threat or use of violence. The members of the previous government are deposed against their will. Initially the coup group rapidly occupies the centers of command, decision-making, and administration, replacing the previous chief executive and top officials with persons (military or civilian) of their choice. Eventually they gain control of the whole state apparatus. Successful coups are usually completed quickly, at most within forty-eight hours.

Coups have taken place in dozens of countries in nearly every region of the world in recent decades, including in Thailand, Burma, the Philippines, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Ghana, Liberia, Chile, Fiji, Greece, Libya, Laos, Guatemala, Argentina, Grenada, Poland, and the Soviet Union.

Coups have been very widespread in Africa in the post-colonial independent countries. The first of these was a military coup which ousted Kwame Nkrumah as President of Ghana in 1966. There were five coups in Thailand between 1951 and 1976, making the growth of democracy difficult. In Libya Muammar Khadaffi took power as a result of a 1969 military coup. The Allende governmentin Chile was deposed by a military coup in 1973. The 1964 military coup in Brazil brought in a repressive military regime that ruled for years. In Guatemala the 1982 coup was followed by another coup which eventually placed retired General Rios Montt in charge. The 1981 declaration of emergency and installation of General Jarulzelski as president in Poland to repress the Solidarity independent labor union, as well as the failed hard-line coup attempt in the Soviet Union in August 1991, are among the best known examples in recent decades. Coups and coup attempts continue....

It has been suggested that coups are now occurring with less frequency than previously, but also that this decline may be short-lived and that even when a coup has been avoided for many years a country may remain vulnerable.

Massive efforts and sums of money are regularly devoted to prepare to resist foreign aggression. Yet, virtually nothing is done to prepare societies to deal with the defense problem of coups, despite their frequency in world politics. Serious consideration of anti-coup defense is long overdue.






Title: The Role of Power in Nonviolent Struggle
Author: Gene Sharp

http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/TheRoleofPowerinNonviolentStruggle-English.pdf

http://aeinstein.org/organizationse4f0.html

Contents: Introduction

Nonviolent struggle is based upon the very nature of power in society and politics. The practice, dynamics, and consequences of nonviolent struggle are all directly dependent upon the wielding of power and its effects on the power of the opponent group. This technique cannot be understood without consideration of this important element in its nature.

This perception is in direct contradiction to the popular misconceptions that nonviolent action is powerless, that it conceptually and politically ignores the reality of power in politics, and that its advocates are naive in not accepting that violence is the real source of power in politics. These misconceptions, however, are themselves rooted in a denial or ignoring of the nature of power in politics and the crucial role of power in the operation of nonviolent struggle.

Nonviolent struggle is a political technique that needs to be understood in its own right, not explained or assessed by an assumption of its close association or identity with quite different phenomena. This technique of action uses social, psychological, economic, and political methods of applying sanctions, that is, pressures or punishments, rather than violent methods. The technique includes nearly two hundred identified methods of symbolic protest, social noncooperation, economic boycotts, labor strikes, political noncooperation, and nonviolent intervention (ranging from sit-ins to parallel government). These many methods are also called the "weapons" of nonviolent action.

The nonviolent technique is not to be confused with the important but separate phenomena of religious and ethical beliefs that espouse abstention from violence. Those beliefs may be shared by the same persons or movement using nonviolent action. However, far more frequently the practice of nonviolent struggle has been conducted by people and movements that lacked a principled commitment to nonviolent means. They had previously used violence or would be willing to do so in the future in other circumstances. Under the current conditions, however, people were willing to follow a grand strategy of nonviolent struggle for a particular purpose. They were willing to use these nonviolent weapons in place of violence, and to maintain nonviolent discipline, even though they were not committed to those means in other possible situations. The overwhelming reason for this choice of nonviolent means in conflicts has been that reliance on this type of struggle would increase the chances of their being successful in the current conflict.

Nonviolent struggle is a technique of matching forces against an opponent group. The opponent group usually has significant administrative, economic, political, police, and military capacity. The opponent group is commonly itself the State apparatus, controlled by an elite that is seen as hostile and injurious to the welfare and interests of a wider population. Or, the opponent group is frequently a non-state body that is backed by the State apparatus.


Title: Self-Reliant Defense Without Bankruptcy or War
Author: Gene Sharp, with the assistance of Bruce Jenkins

http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/Self-ReliantDefenseWithoutBankruptcyorWar-English.pdf

http://aeinstein.org/organizations2dea.html

Contents:

Preface
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1
Can there be another type of defense?

Chapter 2
Another History: Prototypes of a new defense policy

Chapter 3
Direct Defense of the Society

Chapter 4
Fighting Strategies

Chapter 5
Discipline, Repression, and Success

Chapter 6
A Superior Form of Defense

Notes
About the Author


Title: National Security Through Civilian-Based Defense
Author: Gene Sharp

http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/NationalSecurityThroughCivilian-BasedDefense-English.pdf

http://aeinstein.org/organizationsf8b4.html

Contents:

Preface

National Secutiry Through Civilian-based Defense

Ten Points About Civilian-based Defense

Questions About the Applicability of Civilian-based Defense

Key Definitions

For Further Reading

Research Areas and Policy Studies on Civilian-based Defense



Title: Making the Abolition of War a Realistic Goal
Author: Gene Sharp

http://aeinstein.org/organizations/org/MakingtheAbolitionofWaraRealisticGoal-English.pdf

http://aeinstein.org/organizations19a2.html

Contents:

Introduction

The destructiveness of modern war is widely understood. Yet most governments, backed by their populations, amass the largest array of military weaponry and forces of which they are capable. Clearly, none of the past proposals and movements to abolish war and to bring in an era of world peace has succeeded. Indeed, in significant respects the achievement of those goals now seems less likely than it did in earlier decades.

This is, of course, not the only grave political problem we have failed to solve. Others include dictatorship, genocide, systems of social oppression, and popular powerlessness. They must be considered as we seek a solution to the problem of war.

Most people respond to the continuation of wars and war preparation with a sense of resignation, hopelessness, or powerlessness. "War is inevitable," it is thought; we blame "human nature" or our favorite "evil forces." Other persons faithfully persist in plodding the old paths to the now tarnished dreams�without reexamining whether they are headed in the right direction. Still others try to run faster to their goal, or seek shortcuts, or carry out acts of desperation�without a basis for confidence that their efforts can succeed either, or even certainty that they will not make matters worse.

All this is not good. More creative responses are possible. Indeed, it is our responsibility to seek to develop them. If soundly based and realistically developed and applied, the might offer new hope.

[Hugh]

How misinformation works

http://www.informingscience.org/proceedings/IS2003Proceedings/docs/089Covac.pdf

[Charles Martel]

How misinformation works

http://www.informingscience.org/proceedings/IS2003Proceedings/docs/089Covac.pdf

Sadly, the first link is now blocked (er, dead)....:(

[Hugh]

It looks like the link is working again.

Cheers.

[Hugh]

Thirty six strategies of ancient China

http://www.chinastrategies.com/List.htm#Strategy 1
http://www.chinastrategies.com/list%202.htm#Strategy 19

Strategy 1

Fool the Emperor to Cross the Sea

Moving about in the darkness and shadows, occupying isolated places, or hiding behind screens will only attract suspicious attention. To lower an enemy's guard you must act in the open hiding your true intentions under the guise of common every day activities.

Japanese Folk Tale

There once lived a Samurai who was plagued by a large and clever rat who had the run of the house. This annoyed the Samurai to no end so he went to the village to buy a cat. A street vendor sold him a cat that he said would catch the rat and indeed the cat looked trim and fit. But the rat was even quicker than the cat and after a week with no success the Samurai returned the cat. This time the vendor pulled out a large and grizzled cat and guaranteed that no rat could escape this master mouser. The rat knew enough to stay clear of this tough alley cat, but when the cat slept, the rat ran about. Half the day the rat would hide, but the other half he again had the run of the place. The Samurai brought the cat back to the vendor who shook his head in despair saying he had given the Samurai his best cat and there was nothing more he could do. Returning home with his money, the Samurai happened upon a monk and sought his advice. After hearing the Samurai's story the monk offered him the services of the cat that lived in the temple. The cat was old and fat and he scarcely seemed to notice when he was carried away by the doubtful Samurai. For two weeks the cat did little more than sleep all day and night. The Samurai wanted to give the cat back to the temple but the monk insisted he keep him a while longer assuring him the rat's days were close to an end. The rat became accustomed to the presence of the lazy old cat and was soon up to his old tricks even, on occasion, brazenly dancing around the old cat as he slept. Then one day, as the rat went about his business without any concern, he passed close by the cat - who swiftly struck out his paw and pinned the rat to the floor. The rat died instantly.

Strategy 2

Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao

When the enemy is too strong to attack directly, then attack something he holds dear. Know that in all things he cannot be superior. Somewhere there is a gap in the armour, a weakness that can be attacked instead.

Warring States Era China

This strategy derives its name from a famous incident that occurred in 354 BC. At this time one of China's most renowned strategists, Sun Bin (A descendent of the even then famous Sun Zi) was an advisor to the king of Qi. Sun had earlier been at the court of Wei but another minister, Pang Juan, became jealous of Sun's cleverness. Through court intrigues he had Sun framed as a spy, sentenced to mutilation, and imprisoned. Sun escaped and fled to Qi. Several years later the king of Wei appointed the same Pang Juan as commander of the army and sent him to attack the capital of Zhao. The king of Zhao immediately appealed to Qi for help. The king of Qi consulted his advisors who all spoke in favour of rushing to aid their ally, only Sun Bin recommended against attacking. Sun advised: " To intervene between two warring armies is like trying to divert a tidal way by standing in its path. It would be better to wait until both armies have worn themselves out." The king agreed to wait.

The siege of Zhao had lasted more than a year when Sun Bin decided the time was ripe to come to Zhao's aid. The king of Qi appointed prince Tian Ji as general and Sun as military advisor. Tian Ji wanted to attack the Wei forces directly to lift the siege of Zhao, but again Sun advised against direct intervention saying: " Since most of Wei's troops are out of the country engaged in the siege, their own defence must be weak. By attacking the capital of Wei, we will force the Wei army to return to defend their own capital thereby lifting the siege of Zhao while destroying the Wei forces in turn." Tian Ji agreed to the plan and divided his army into two parts, one to attack the capital of Wei, and the other to prepare an ambush along the route to the capital.

When the Wei general Pang Juan heard that the capital was being attacked, he rushed his army back to defend the capital. Weakened and exhausted from the year long siege and the forced march, the Wei troops were completely caught by surprise in the ambush and suffered heavy losses. Chao was thus rescued while Pang Juan barely escaped back to Wei to recoup his losses. Sun Pin would later defeat his nemesis Pang Juan using another classic strategy.

Strategy 3

Kill with a Borrowed Sword

When you do not have the means to attack your enemy directly, then attack using the strength of another. Trick an ally into attacking him, bribe an official to turn traitor, or use the enemy's own strength against him.

Warring States Era China

Chang Tuo defected from Western Zhou and went to Eastern Zhou where he revealed all of Western Zhou's state secrets. Eastern Zhou rejoiced while Western Zhou was furious. Minister Feng Chu said to the king of Western Zhou: "I can assassinate that man if your highness will give me thirty catties of gold." The king consented and the next day Feng Chu sent an agent to the Eastern Zhou court bearing the gold and a letter addressed to Chang Tuo. The letter read: `This is to remind Chang Tuo that you must complete your mission as soon as possible for the longer the delay the more likely you will be found out.' Before the first agent departed, Feng Chu then sent another agent to the Eastern Zhou border guards informing them that a spy would be crossing the border that night. When the second agent arrived at the border he was stopped and searched. The border guards found the gold and the letter to Chang Tuo and turned them over to the Zhou court officials. Shortly afterwards Chang Tuo was executed

Strategy 4

Await the Exhausted Enemy at Your Ease

It is an advantage to choose the time and place for battle. In this way you know when and where the battle will take place, while your enemy does not. Encourage your enemy to expend his energy in futile quests while you conserve your strength. When he is exhausted and confused, you attack with energy and purpose.

Chinese Folk Tale

The emperor Xuan of Zhou loved to gamble on cock fights and kept a stable of specially bred fighting roosters. Although they were strong and fierce they would nevertheless lose against the roosters trained by Ji Xing Ze. The emperor therefore hired Ji to train his roosters.

Ten days had passed when the emperor went to the stables to ask if they were ready to fight.

"No." said Ji, " They are far too fierce and proud of their strength. They rush to attack even the slightest noise."

After another ten days passed the emperor returned to enquire again.

"Not yet. They are still haughty and jump at everything that moves."

After another ten days the emperor again asked the question.

"No, still not yet. Although they no longer rush to attack, they still raise their hackles and stare fiercely at the slightest provocation."

After yet another ten days the emperor again asked if the roosters were ready.

"Yes, they are nearly ready. Although some still crow from time to time, none ever change their countenance. From a distance they appear as steady is if they were made of wood. Before them, their untrained opponents would not dare accept their challenge and could only turn back and run."

Strategy 5

Loot a Burning House

When a country is beset by internal conflicts, when disease and famine ravage the population, when corruption and crime are rampant, then it will be unable to deal with an outside threat. This is the time to attack.

Warring States Era China

Qi and Han were allies when Chang Yi attacked Han with the combined forces of Qin and Wei. Han asked Qi for assistance. The king of Qi said:" Han is our ally and since Qin has attacked her we must go to her rescue." But his minister Tian-chen Su disagreed saying: "Your majesty's planning is faulty. You should merely agree to assist Han but take no action there. However, in the kingdom of Yan, their king has recently resigned the throne to his despised prime minister. This has enraged both the noble houses and the common people causing turmoil at court. Now if Qin attacks Han, Chu and Chao will surely come to her aid and this will be as good as heaven bestowing Yan upon us."

The king approved and promised the Han envoy assistance before sending him back to Han believing he had Qi's backing. When Qin attacked Han, Chu and Chao intervened as expected. While all the major kingdoms were thus engaged in the battle for Han, Qi quickly and quietly attacked Yan. Within thirty days Yan was captured.


Strategy 6

Clamor in the East, Attack in the West

In any battle the element of surprise can provide an overwhelming advantage. Even when face to face with an enemy, surprise can still be employed by attacking where he least expects it. To do this you must create an expectation in the enemy's mind through the use of a feint.

Song Dynasty China

Once there was an official who was transferred to the capital. The front part of the inn where he stayed was a teahouse, and across the street was a shop that sold expensive dyed silks. Whenever he had nothing to do, he would sit at a table watching the people and activity on the street. One day he noticed with surprise that several suspicious looking characters were walking back and forth observing the silk shop with great interest. One of them came up to his table and whispered: "We're in the robbery business and we're here to steal those fine silks. Since you noticed us I came to ask you not to mention it."

"That has nothing to do with me," the official replied. "Why should I say anything about it?"

The fellow thanked him and left him. The official thought to himself: 'the silk shop has its wares openly displayed on a busy street. In broad daylight, with a thousand eyes watching, if they have the skill to steal those silks, then they must be smart thieves indeed.' So he watched carefully to see how they would manage it. But what he saw was only the same people walking back and forth in front of the silk shop. Sometimes they gathered on the left, sometimes on the right. The official sat watching until after sunset when everyone had gone and the shop had closed. "Those fools." said the official to himself. "They were putting one over on me." When he returned to his room to order some food, he discovered that all his belongings were gone.

Strategy 7

Create Something From Nothing

You use the same feint twice. Having reacted to the first and often the second feint as well, the enemy will be hesitant to react to a third feint. Therefore the third feint is the actual attack catching your enemy with his guard down.

Tang Dynasty China

During the An Lushan rebellion in 756 AD the Tang general Chang Shun was under siege by the forces of general Linghu Chao. Outnumbered twenty to one, the defending Tang forces soon ran out of arrows. To remedy this general Chang ordered his men to make straw dummies and to dress them in black uniforms. That night the dummies were lowered over the city walls by ropes, accompanied to the beat of war drums and gongs. General Linghu thought the enemy was launching a surprise night offensive and ordered his archers to shower the figures descending the walls with arrows. Once the dummies where riddled with arrows the Tang soldiers pulled them back up the walls and thus restored their supply of arrows.

The next day general Linghu realized he had been tricked and attacked the walls in revenge for being humiliated. That night the Tang again lowered the dummies but General Linghu ordered his men to ignore them believing it was the same trick to get more arrows. When general Chang saw that no one was firing at the straw dummies, he ordered that five hundred of his best troops be lowered instead. They made a lightning raid on the encamped soldiers who were caught completely by surprise. The siege was lifted and general Linghu's army fled the field.

Strategy 8

Openly Repair The Walkway, Secretly March to Chencang

Attack the enemy with two convergent forces. The first is the direct attack, one that is obvious and for which the enemy prepares his defense. The second is the indirect, the attack sinister, that the enemy does not expect and which causes him to divide his forces at the last minute leading to confusion and disaster.

Muromachi Period Japan

In 1560 one of Japan's greatest warlords, Oda Nobunaga, then still a minor commander, marched his force of 2,000 men to stop the incursion of a rival warlord Imagawa Yoshimoto. Even though Nobunaga was outnumbered twelve to one he set out humming a tune. Nobunaga's scouts reported that Imagawa was resting his troops at a village that was nestled near a narrow gorge that Nobunaga knew would be ideal for a surprise attack.

The scouts further reported that Imagawa's troops were celebrating and viewing the heads taken in a previous battle. Nobunaga devised the following ploy. He made camp some distance away from the village. He placed numerous flags and had straw dummies made to give the impression that a large host had arrived. Imagawa's forces thus expected an attack to come from the direction the enemy camp. Meanwhile Nobunaga's troops secretly made a forced march in a wide circle in order to come up from behind the Imagawa encampment. Weather favored Nobunaga's scheme for late in the day there was a heavy downpour. Taking advantage of the foul weather, Nobunaga's troops launched a sudden attack from the rear. So unexpected was this attack that Imagawa a first thought that a brawl had broken out among his own troops. Only when he saw two enemy Samurai charging towards him did he realize he was under attack. The realization came too late and Imagawa was beheaded and his troops scattered. The battle lasted only a few minutes but it made Oda Nobunaga's reputation and he quickly rouse in power until he became one of Japan's greatest warlords.

Strategy 9

Observe the Fire on the Opposite Shore

Delay entering the field of battle until all the other players have become exhausted fighting amongst themselves. Then go in full strength and pick up the pieces.

Hojo Regency Japan

In 1583 the great general Toyotomi Hideyoshi was positioning his forces against Akechi Mitsuhide in what would be the battle of Yamazaki. Shortly after the battle had engaged, Tsetsui Junkeian, an ally of Mitsuhide arrived on the scene. Impressed by the superior forces of Hideyoshi, he refused to attack but instead ordered his men to line up in battle formation on a hill above the Hora-ga-toge pass where he could watch the battle before deciding which general to side with. Seeing Hideyoshi gaining the advantage he betrayed his ally and sent his troops over to Hideyoshi's side. This incident was never forgotten and henceforth the Japanese equivalent of `Watching the fire...' is known as `To wait at Hora-ga-toge.'

Strategy 10

Hide Your Dagger Behind a Smile

Charm and ingratiate yourself to your enemy. When you have gained his trust, you move against him in secret.

Warring States Era China

The king of Wei sent a beautiful courtesan to the king of Chu who took great delight in the new girl. His queen, Zheng Xiu, knowing how fond the king was of his new woman, treated the newcomer as a sister supplying her with gifts and treasures and whatever she needed. The king hearing of this summoned his queen and said: AA woman serves a man with her beauty and thus jealousy is a part of her very nature. Yet you, knowing how much the new woman pleases me, have treated her more kindly than I have myself. These actions are those of a child to her parents or a minister to his ruler, how unexpected it is to find this in a queen to her husband." The queen thus knew that her husband did not suspect her of jealousy. When she next met with the new girl the queen told her: "His majesty is much taken with your beauty but he dislikes the shape of your nose. When next you serve him be sure to cover it with your hand." Grateful for the advice, when she next served the king this is what she did.

The next day the king asked his queen: "The new woman covers her nose when she is with me. Do you know why?"

"I know." replied the queen.

"Well then no matter how unpleasant you must tell me the reason."

"It seems she does not like the way your majesty smells."

"The shrew!" cried the king.

In a rage the king ordered that the unfortunate girl's nose be cut off.

Strategy 11

Sacrifice the Plum Tree In Place of the Peach

There are circumstances in which you must sacrifice short-term objectives in order to gain the long-term goal. This is the scapegoat strategy whereby someone else suffers the consequences so that the rest do not.

Three Kingdoms Period China

On one of his campaigns Cao Cao was running short of food. He asked his supply sergeant what he could do. The sergeant suggested reducing the rations by secretly using a smaller cup to parcel out the rice. Cao Cao praised the sergeant and gave his consent to use the smaller measuring cup. After a few days the soldiers began to complain and accused their commander of cheating them. Cao Cao again called in the supply sergeant and told him the situation.

"I will do anything I can to help but what would you have me do?" asked the sergeant.

"I'm afraid I am going have to borrow your head." replied Cao Cao and he had the sergeant decapitated and his head stuck on a tall pole with a banner that read "Caught cheating on supplies by using a smaller measuring cup."

Strategy 12

Seize the Opportunity To Lead a Sheep Away

While carrying out your plans be flexible enough to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself, however small, and avail yourself of any profit, however slight.

Yuan Dynasty China

During the final days of the Yuan dynasty, rebellion had broken out throughout the empire. Initially there were several contenders vying to be the first to found a new dynasty on the imminent fall of the house of Yuan, but the field was narrowed to two; Chu Yuan-Chang and Chen Yifu. The two armies met at Poyang Lake where a naval engagement was to take place. General Chen had the advantage of both troops and ships. His ships were large and sturdy and he had them lined up side to side across the entire expanse of the lake. He furthermore had the ships joined together with iron chains so as to create an impenetrable barrier. General Chu sent his ships to attack but they were defeated having failed to break through the cordon. Fortunately for Chu the next day a violent northwest gale began to blow. Since Chen's flotilla was situated downwind, Chu took advantage of the situation to launch fireboats against the barrier. Soon Chen's troops were in a frenzy to save their ships from both the rising storm and the fire, which was fanned into a blazing fierceness by the wind. Taking advantage of the panic and confusion that ensued, Chu launched his own fleet into the attack and they completely defeated Chen's forces. An arrow through his eye killed General Chen while general Chu became the founder of the Ming Dynasty.

Strategy 13

Beat The Grass To Startle The Snake

When you cannot detect the opponent's plans launch a direct, but brief, attack and observe your opponent reactions. His behavior will reveal his strategy.

Qin Dynasty

The notorious eunuch Zhao Gao is credited with helping to bring down the house of Qin ending China’s first and shortest imperial dynasty. After the first emperor died he conspired with the chief minister Li Si to dispose of the legitimate heir to the throne and install a weak and corrupt puppet emperor Huhei. (See Chapter 14) Having established his influence over the young emperor, Zhao Gao was nervous about possible opposition from the other ministers of state. So he devised a test to see which ones would be faithful to him. One day he brought a stag into the court and presented it to the emperor explaining that it was a horse.

"You’re mistaken, Prime Minister”, said the emperor, “You’ve called a stag a horse.”

Zhao Gao turned to the other ministers present and asked them whether it was a horse or stag. Some kept silent, others in an attempt to ingratiate themselves with the true power behind the throne agreed it was a horse, and still others said it was a stag. The emperor was under Zhao Gao’s control to such a degree that he believed he was going insane and that the stag really was a horse. Meanwhile, one of Zhao Gao’s spies was recording the answers given by each of the ministers. Afterwards, Zhao Gao secretly framed charges against all those who had said it was a stag and had them executed.

Strategy 14

Borrow a Corpse to Raise the Spirit

Take an institution, a technology, or a method that has been forgotten or discarded and appropriate it for your own purpose. Revive something from the past by giving it a new purpose or to reinterpret and bring to life old ideas, customs, and traditions.

Han Dynasty China

When the emperor Huidi died in 188 BC he left no heir. His mother, the empress Lu, bought a child several years before his death and had her daughter-in-law pretend that it was her own. To cover her tracks the empress had the boy's natural mother executed. After the emperor's death, the empress had this boy installed on the throne with herself as regent. However, within two years the boy, after learning that his true mother had been executed, was heard to say: "When I become emperor I will know what to do." When the empress's spies reported the words spoken by the young emperor she had him murdered and another puppet set in his place. The empress ruled a prosperous empire for eight years through the six successive child emperors that she installed on the throne before dying of a mysterious illness. Rumor said her death was the result of a curse from one of her late husband's concubines, who was horribly mutilated and tortured according to the empress's precise instructions. The empress Lu is remembered in Chinese history as one of three notorious `dragon ladies' who had seized the imperial throne.

Strategy 15

Lure the Tiger Down the Mountain

Never directly attack a well-entrenched opponent. Instead lure him away from his stronghold and separate him from his source of strength.

Three Kingdoms Period China

In the year 199, Sun Ce had consolidated his newly conquered territories in the south and his next goal was the prosperous area of Lujiang to the north. However, Lujiang had a professional army and was well defended. In addition it also had the advantage of terrain, being accessible only through a couple of easily defended passes. Sun Ce's advisors cautioned against moving directly against such a well-entrenched and powerful state so they devised another scheme. Sun Ce sent an emissary laden with gifts and a letter to the king of Lujiang, Liu Xun. The letter praised the King's military skills and begged for his assistance. Sun Ce wrote: " For years the state of Shangliao has invaded my territory unhindered and carried away booty, yet we are too weak to launch a retaliatory raid. If Your Majesty would attack Shangliao we would give assistance and you could annex the state for yourself." Flattered and covetous of increasing his domains, The king of Lujiang disregarded the advice of his counselors and attacked the state of Shangliao. Several weeks later, while the king of Lujiang was busy laying siege to Shangliao's capital, Sun Ce attacked the almost undefended Lujiang and easily seized the capital. Without the expected support from Sun Ce, The king of Lujiang failed to take the capital of Shangliao and he returned only to find his own capital already in enemy hands. Sun Ce now had the advantage of the Lujiang terrain and the former king could do nothing but flee with his army.

Strategy 16

To Catch Something, First Let It Go

Cornered prey will often mount a final desperate attack. To prevent this you let the enemy believe he still has a chance for freedom. His will to fight is thus dampened by his desire to escape. When in the end the freedom is proven a falsehood the enemy's morale will be defeated and he will surrender without a fight.

Six Dynasties Period China

During the Southern Song period, general Tan Dao-Ji launched an attack against the north on behalf of the emperor. Throughout the campaign he seized cities and destroyed fortifications, taking more than four thousand prisoners. His advisors suggested that he should execute them all and erect a victory mound with the dead. Tan Dao-Ji replied: "At this time we have attacked the guilty and consoled the people. The army of a true king takes the upright as its position, so why is it necessary to slay the people?" He released all the prisoners and sent them back to their homes. These former prisoners told their kinsmen of their capture and release and of the fair treatment they received at the hands of general Tan. Thereupon the barbarians dwelling in the region were elated, and wherever general Tan, went a great many came forward to give their allegiance to the emperor.

Strategy 17

Toss Out A Brick To Attract Jade

Prepare a trap then lure your enemy into the trap by using bait. In war the bait is the illusion of an opportunity for gain. In life the bait is the illusion of wealth, power, and sex.

Warring States Era China

The earl of Zhi was preparing to attack Lesser Wei. To prepare for his attack he presented the king of Wei with four hundred mustangs and a beautiful white jade Bi. The king was overjoyed and his ministers all offered their congratulations, but one minister, Nan-wen Ci looked distressed. The king seeing his demeanor asked: "The great state is very pleased with us! Why then do you look troubled?" The minister replied: "One must always examine thoroughly a reward given for no merit and deference shown where no force has been applied. Four hundred mustangs and a white jade Bi constitute the kind of gift a small state might give when serving a great one. But in this case the larger state makes the gift. Your majesty should ponder this." As a precaution, the king of Wei told his commander of the border guards what his minister had cautioned and ordered his troops to be on full alert. Shortly thereafter, as the minister intimated, the earl of Zhi arrived at the border at the head of a large army. But when the earl saw the border guards posted at full strength, he retired saying: "Alas, there are worthy men in Wei, for they have anticipated my plans."

Strategy 18

To Catch the Bandits First Capture Their Leader

If the enemy's army is strong but is allied to the commander only by money or threats then, take aim at the leader. If the commander falls the rest of the army will disperse or come over to your side. If, however, they are allied to the leader through loyalty then beware, the army can continue to fight on after his death out of vengeance.

Spring and Autumn Period China

In 756 BC the rebel commander Yin Ziqi led an army to lay siege against the strategic city of Suiyang. The defending commander, Zhang Xun, noticed that Yin Ziqi oversaw the siege from well outside the range of the city's archers. He believed that if he could take out the leader the rebel's morale would sink and he would be able to launch a counter attack. He devised a plan with his best archers. The next time the rebels assailed the wall they were to shoot back using the branches of trees. When Yin Ziqi heard that the defenders were reduced to shooting with branches he felt certain the city was ready to be taken. Before the next assault he moved in closer to better oversee the final victory. Riding atop his horse he unknowingly came within range of the archers who had saved their arrows for just such a moment. One arrow hit Yin Ziqi in the left eye killing him instantly. The spectacle of their commander's death in front of almost the entire rebel army served to demoralize them to such an extent that they dispersed the field

Strategy 19

Steal The Firewood From Under the Pot

When faced with an enemy too powerful to engage directly you must first weaken him by undermining his foundation and attacking his source of power.

Legendary Era Japan

Japan's ancient hero Yamato Takeru was one of the eighty children of emperor Keiko. One day he was sent to kill a notorious outlaw who was such an expert swordsman that all who had gotten in his way were killed. Yamato Takeru did not intend to duel with the bandit and pretended to be ignorant of the man's reputation in order to befriend him. They became such good friends that they even went swimming together on a regular basis. When Yamato Takeru was assured the bandit harbored no suspicions he was ready to act. One day when they went swimming he brought with him a wooden sword that he hid in his travel kit. They were in the habit of racing each other around a small island but this time while they were racing Takeru let the bandit take the lead and, once he was out of sight behind the island, Takeru swam back to shore and quickly replaced the bandit's sword with the wooden one. After they had gotten dressed Takeru turned to the bandit and revealed his true purpose. The bandit immediately went for his sword, but the wooden sword had become wedged in the scabbard. While he was struggling to draw the wooden sword, Takeru took the bandit's head off in a single stroke.

Strategy 20

Trouble The Water To Catch The Fish

Before engaging your enemy's forces create confusion to weaken his perception and judgment. Do something unusual, strange, and unexpected as this will arouse the enemy's suspicion and disrupt his thinking. A distracted enemy is thus more vulnerable.

Spring and Autumn Period China

In 632 BC the armies of Jin and Chu faced each other at Chengbu before the battle of the same name. Chu sent an envoy to Jin requesting to fight a chariot duel the next day to which the Jin ruler, Duke Wen, agreed. In the morning Duke Wen climbed to the top of an observation tower and looking down on his camp's preparations said: A Young and old conduct themselves according to ritual. They are fit for use!" He then ordered his troops to cut down trees to be used as part of an unorthodox tactic. While the chariot duel was underway Duke Wen launched a sudden cavalry attack against the Chu right wing causing it to collapse in. At the same time as the right was being pushed into the main body, the Jin troops in the center raised the retreat pennants and began pulling back. As the Jin troops retreated they dragged behind them the trees they had cut down earlier that morning. This raised such a dust cloud that the Chu commanders thought the Jin were fleeing in panic and eagerly gave chase. When the main body of the Chu army was enveloped in the cloud of dust they were unable to see that the Jin forces had split into two divisions and had turned around. The Jin attacked in a classical pincer movement on both of the Chu flanks. The result was a resounding defeat after which the Chu general was ordered to commit suicide. Duke Wen had taken advantage of the distraction provided by the chariot duel to launch both a surprise attack, and a retreat, manipulating the Chu forces into a trap.

Strategy 21

Shed Your Skin Like the Golden Cicada

When you are in danger of being defeated, and your only chance is to escape and regroup, then create an illusion. While the enemy's attention is focused on this artifice, secretly remove your men leaving behind only the facade of your presence.

Three Kingdoms Period China

The warlord Cao Cao of Wei, was pursuing the fleeing army and population of Shu led by the heroes of the Peach Grove, Liu Pei and Chang Fei. The retreating column came upon the Changpan bridge over the Wei river with the enemy army only hours behind. On the opposite side of the river there was heavy forest. Chang Fei turned to his general Liu Pei and said: "This bridge is the only crossing point for miles and provides us with an advantage. You take the army and people across while I hold off the Wei army to give you as much of a lead as possible." After the Shu army had crossed over, Chang Fei sent his small group of cavalrymen across the bridge into the forest where they tied branches to their horses tails and rode around in circles. Chang Fei remained sitting on his charger in the middle of the bridge. When the pursuing army of Wei came upon the sight of Chang Fei alone on the bridge they stopped. Cao Cao noticed the huge dust cloud in the distance behind the woods and suspected a trap. Chang Fei roared out a challenge to the Wei army but Cao Cao, now convinced this was a ruse, turned his men around to retreat. Chang Fei seeing the Wei army turn about spurred his charger towards the Wei as though to attack them single handedly. This so unnerved the Wei forces that they made a mad scramble to escape the area convinced a trap was closing around them. This trick bought Lui Pei and Chang Fei enough time to escape with their men and regroup at Chianling.

Strategy 22

Shut the Door to Catch the Thief

If you have the chance to completely capture the enemy then you should do so thereby bringing the battle or war to a quick and lasting conclusion. To allow your enemy to escape plants the seeds for future conflict. But if they succeed in escaping, be wary of giving chase.

Warring States Era China

In 449 BC the state of Wu had invaded the state of Yue and carried off its duke Guo Jian holding him prisoner for three years before releasing him back to his kingdom. When he returned Guo Jian planned his revenge. For seven years he ruled with benevolence and generosity making a reputation as a wise and virtuous ruler until he felt his loyal subjects were prepared to undergo any hardship for him. He accordingly assembled his forces and attacked Wu gaining a decisive victory.(See Chapter 5) The king of Wu had to flee but it would only be a matter of time before he was caught. He sent ambassadors to Guo Jian begging for mercy. They reminded him of how Wu, though she had him firmly in her grasp, had released him to return to his state. The king of Wu now asked to be granted the same favor. Guo Jian was contemplating granting this appeal when his prime minister Fan Li intervened and said: "When heaven gave the duke of Wu the grand opportunity for gaining power he did not take advantage of it and so he is a fugitive today. Should you fail to accept what fortune has now given you, you may be driven from your state, and then all the years of hardships you have bourn will have been endured in vain." The duke was swayed by the argument and sent the ambassador back with the message that he would not grant any mercy. When the king of Wu received the message he gave up all hope and committed suicide.

Strategy 23

Befriend a Distant Enemy to Attack One Nearby

It is known that nations that border each other become enemies while nations separated by distance and obstacles make better allies. When you are the strongest in one field, your greatest threat is from the second strongest in your field, not the strongest from another field.

Han Dynasty China

In 110 AD the province of Honan had suffered through droughts and floods, the harvests were poor and the people starving. The corrupt government only made matters worse and soon the whole province was in chaos. The numerous bands of bandits and robbers that roamed the countryside pillaging and terrorizing the population thwarted any hope of bringing in outside relief. A provincial official by the name of Yu-Hu was appointed full powers to try to restore some order to the province. When he arrived at the district capital he issued a notice that he was going to organized a military force and that he was looking for recruits. First he promised a pardon for past crimes and immunity for anyone who joined up. Then he announced that he was looking for men for three classes of troops. The first class of troops were to consist of men who had committed robbery and murder. They would be the commanders and receive the highest salaries. The second class would consist of men who had committed mere thievery. They would receive the next highest salaries. The third class would consist of men who had joined the robber bands simply because they were lazy and wished to avoid real labor. They would be paid the lowest salaries. Within a couple of weeks Yu-Hu had over three hundred new recruits. When they had been issued uniforms and weapons he had them paraded before him and addressed them as follows: "Your past deeds are now forgiven and you are free from prosecution. But you must still atone for the crimes you have committed against society. To do this you must now go out and hunt down all your past colleagues who have not answered my call." This they did and within a year the fraternity of bandits was extinct and the countryside made safe.

Strategy 24

Borrow the Road to Conquer Guo

Borrow the resources of an ally to attack a common enemy. Once the enemy is defeated, use those resources to turn on the ally that lent you them in the first place.

Spring and Autumn Period China

The small states of Yu and Guo bordered the larger state of Jin. Duke Xian of Jin desired to conquer both states. This desire was not unknown to the two smaller states and both had taken steps to defend their borders with Jin. The duke's general, Xun Xi, suggested they make a roundabout attack at Guo through the state of Yu to catch them by surprise. General Xun suggested that since the duke of Yu was a greedy man he could be bribed with gifts of jade and horses in exchange for safe passage through his territory. Duke Xian objected to the idea of giving away so much treasure and asked: "What if the duke of Yu accepts our gifts but refuses us passage?" but general Xun replied: "If he doesn't intend to let us through, then he wouldn't accept them, but if he does accept the gifts, and he does let us through, then it will only mean that the treasure is stored temporarily in his storehouse rather than ours."

When the bribe was sent to the duke of Yu one of his ministers, Gong Ziqi, cautioned against accepting them saying: "Yu is to Guo, like lips are to teeth. Our ancestors had a saying; `If the lips are gone, the teeth will be exposed to cold'. That Guo is able to exist depends on Yu while Yu's ability to survive hinges on Guo. If we make way for Jin, then the day will see Guo perish in the morning to be followed by Yu in the evening. Why should we ever let Jin pass?" The duke of Yu, however, refused to listen to this advice. Jin was given safe passage and succeeded in conquering Guo. On their way back they stopped to conquered Yu. After taking the Yu capital and recovering the treasure, general Xun returned the jade and horses to the duke. Duke Xian was pleased and said in good humor "The jade is untouched but the horses seem to have gained some more teeth!"

Strategy 25

Replace The Beams With Rotten Timbers

Disrupt the enemy's formations, interfere with their methods of operations, change the rules in which they are used to following, go contrary to their standard training. In this way you remove the supporting pillar, the common link that makes a group of men an effective fighting force.

Six Dynasties Period China

In 383 emperor Fu Jian of Qin, personally led an advance guard of 5,000 horses to attack the Jin general Xie Shi. Discovering that the Jin forces were greater than he anticipated, the emperor had his army form defensive positions along the bank of the river. The Jin armies likewise encamped on the opposite side. Neither side wished to cross first since it was well known that an army is most vulnerable when crossing a river. General Shi sent an envoy across the river with a message that read: " My lord, your army has entered deeply into our territory, and in deploying your ranks you have crowded upon the river. This is the plan for a lengthy stalemate. Do you really want to fight? If you will order your men to withdraw to a safe distance and allow us to cross we can then fight it out and settle the matter quickly."

The emperor agreed to the request. When his advisors objected, emperor Fu Jian told them that he planned to turn his army about and attack the Jin after half their troops had crossed. But general Xie anticipated the emperor's treachery and sent scouts disguised as imperial troops to infiltrate the Qin ranks. When the emperor ordered his army to pull back, the disguised Jin troops began to incite panic by spreading the rumor that Qin was withdrawing in defeat and that Jin was in hot pursuit. The retreat quickly turned into a rout as the Qin troops broke formation to escape. The emperor and his generals raced frantically after the fleeing soldiers with whips in hand to stop them, but to no avail. The Jin army quickly crossed the river and pursued the Qin forces inflicting enormous casualties. The emperor was wounded and narrowly escaped. He was captured and strangled a few weeks later.

Strategy 26

Point At The Mulberry But Curse The Locust Tree

To discipline, control, or warn others whose status or position excludes them from direct confrontation; use analogy and innuendo. Without directly naming names, those accused cannot retaliate without revealing their complicity.

Han Dynasty China

After Gaozu had become Emperor he invested many of his followers. One day while he was strolling along the balcony of his palace he noticed several ministers milling about below speaking in hushed tones. "What are they talking about?" he asked his advisor Chang Liang. "Your majesty does not know? They are plotting a revolt."

"But peace has been restored to the empire. Why should they be planning a revolt?"

"When your majesty rose from among the common people, it was through these men that you seized control of the empire. You have become the Son of Heaven, but those whom you have invested have all been close friends from the old days. Now these younger officers of your army, reckoning up the merits they have won, believe that there is not sufficient land in the whole empire to invest them all. So some of them fear they will not receive their just allotment. Therefore they plot rebellion."

"What should I do?" asked the Emperor

"Among all your followers whom do you dislike the most?"

"Yong Chi and I are ancient enemies," replied the Emperor.

"You must hurry and invest Yong Chi before anyone else, and make known what you have done to your other followers. When they see Yong Chi has been invested, they will all feel assured of their own rewards." said Chiang

The emperor agreed and held a feast honoring Yong Chi with lands and titles. When the other ministers left the banquet they said to each other happily, "If even Yong Chi can become a marquis, the rest of us have nothing to worry about!"

Strategy 27

Feign Madness But Keep Your Balance

Hide behind the mask of a fool, a drunk, or a madman to create confusion about your intentions and motivations. Lure your opponent into underestimating your ability until, overconfident, he drops his guard. Then you may attack.

Sui Dynasty China

During the final years of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty there appeared a ballad that foretold the fall of the house of Sui and the ascent of a man named Li as emperor. The ballad became immensely popular among the disaffected subjects of Emperor Yang's infamous rule. The emperor, being superstitious and believing in the prophecy himself, began a campaign to search out and execute anyone of importance with the surname Li. He had numerous ministers and officials along with their entire families put to the sword. A minor official whose name was, Li Yuan, was serving as superintendent in the provinces when he was summoned to the court. Li Yuan delayed appearing in court by claiming poor health. Li Yuan had a niece who was a palace maid and one day the emperor asked her where her uncle Li has been. The lady replied that her uncle was ill. The emperor said: "I wonder if he is courting death?" When Li Yuan heard this he was certain that if he obeyed the summons to court he would never return. Thereupon he feigned madness and pretended to become an incorrigible drunk. When the imperial spies reported Li's behavior the emperor thought that a madmen could never fulfill the prophesy and was no longer suspicious of Li. Surprisingly, two years later the Sui emperor placed Li in charge of a field army to defend the empire against barbarian incursions. Li fought bravely, won the respect of his troops, marched on the capital, and went on to found the illustrious Tang dynasty thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Strategy 28

Lure Your Enemy Onto the Roof, Then Take Away the Ladder

With baits and deceptions lure your enemy into treacherous terrain. Then cut off his lines of communication and avenue of escape. To save himself he must fight both your own forces and the elements of nature.

Han Dynasty China

After defeating the rebel kingdom of Wei, the famous Han general Han Xin was sent to quell the other two kingdoms that had revolted, Qi and Chu. General Han set out towards Qi but Chu sent its general Long Chu with a force of two hundred thousand men to intercept Han's invasion of Qi. The two armies met on opposite sides of the Wei river. General Han ordered his men to fill over ten thousand sandbags and carry them up-river to dam the flow of water. The next morning General Han led his army across the lowered river and attacked Chu, but after a short engagement pretended defeat and fled back across the river. General Long announced, " See I always knew Han Xin was a coward!" and he led his army across the river in pursuit. Through a prearranged signal, General Han had his men break the dam and free the pent up waters. Only half of the Chu army was across the river when the flood cut the army in half drowning those caught midstream. General Han then wheeled around his retreating forces and attacked the advance guard of Chu killing its general Long Chu. The remaining troops panicked and fled in all directions but were captured by the pursuing Han soldiers.

Strategy 29

Tie Silk Blossoms to the Dead Tree

Tying silk blossoms on a dead tree gives the illusion that the tree is healthy. Through the use of artifice and disguise make something of no value appear valuable; of no threat appear dangerous; of no use, useful.

Three Kingdoms Period China

During the final years of the Three Kingdoms, Suma Yan usurped the throne of Wei, made himself king, and changed the name of the kingdom from Wei to Jin. News of this reached the neighboring king of Wu who knew that his kingdom would be the next likely target of the ambitious Suma. He worried so much that he died several days later. Sun Hao then inherited the throne of Wu and immediately took to pleasure and vice neglecting state affairs. Over the next few years the new king of Wu grew increasingly paranoid and had dozens of his advisors and commanders and their entire families executed on the slightest suspicion and as a result he was widely reviled. Hearing that the people of Wu despised their king, Suma ordered a naval attack led by commander Wang Chun. The king of Wu had no idea of what to do against the impending naval attack. He convened what remained of his council and one advisor recommended stringing a bamboo barrier across the river to prevent the fleet from reaching the Wu capital of Jian Yeh. The king agreed and heavy bamboo cords were made and strung just below the surface. When Commander Wang heard about the barrier he laughed. He ordered his men to build huge rafts from timbers on which were erected straw dummies dressed in armor and holding weapons. The dummies were soaked in oil and a trip mechanism was attached that would ignite the dummies when the rafts struck the barrier. The rafts burned through the bamboo and continued on down stream to the Wu capital. The spectacle of a fleet of rafts full of burning men so frightened the Wu troops that they fled in terror. Suma captured Wu and went on to found the short-lived Jin dynasty.

Strategy 30

Exchange the Role of Guest for that of Host

Defeat the enemy from within by infiltrating the enemy's camp under the guise of cooperation, surrender, or peace treaties. In this way you can discover his weakness and then, when the enemy's guard is relaxed, strike directly at the source of his strength.

Japanese Folk Tale

In feudal Japan there lived a venerable Kendo master who decided to test his three highest-ranking students. He brought them one by one to an old temple in the nearby mountains where he told each student the following: "You have studied with me many years, now lets see if my teaching has been in vain. There within the temple awaits your test, pass and you will have graduated."

Within the dimly lit temple the Master had hidden four Samurai armed with clubs and instructions to jump anyone who entered the temple. The first student entered the temple and before his eyes could adjust to the light, was surprised and beaten by the Samurai."I am sorry, you have failed." Said the master.

The second student entered the temple and sensed the attackers. He was able to deftly evade their attack and defeat them. The student came out of the temple triumphant, but again the master said, "I am sorry, you have failed'

Finally the third student was brought to the temple and told about the test. The student replied, "But venerable master, protocol dictates that when entering a temple the master must always precede the student, so if you please, I shall follow you in." To which the master replied, "You rascal, you have learned all I can teach you."

Strategy 31

The Strategy of Beautiful Women

Send your enemy beautiful women to cause discord within his camp. This strategy can work on three levels. First, the ruler becomes so enamored with the beauty that he neglects his duties and allows his vigilance to wane. Second, other males at court will begin to display aggressive behavior that inflames minor differences hindering co-operation and destroying morale. Third, other females at court, motivated by jealousy and envy, begin to plot intrigues further exasperating the situation.

Han Dynasty China

In 199 BC the Han emperor, Gaozu personally led his army against the invading Xiongnu. The emperor, however, was no match against the cunning tribesmen and he was led into a trap and suffered serious casualties. (See chapter 15) He and his remaining forces retreated to the city of Pingcheng for refuge but were surrounded by some 300,000 horsemen. There the emperor remained surrounded for seven days with no possibility of bringing in either provisions or reinforcements. The emperor thought here was nothing left to do but surrender when his advisor, Chen Ping, came up with another strategy. Chen had a painting made of a beautiful Chinese princess that he secretly delivered to the wife of the Xiongnu commander. Along with the painting he sent a message that read: `My Emperor intends to surrender to your husband and so to win his favor he is sending him a present of one of China's famous beauties to be his concubine.' When the Xiongnu commander's wife saw the painting and read the note she was mad with jealousy. Fearing that such a beautiful rival would steal her husband's affections, she persuaded her husband to lift the siege and return home. The next morning when the emperor awoke he discovered the Xiongnu had left and he was able to return safely to his capital.

Strategy 32

The Strategy of Open City Gates

When the enemy is superior in numbers and your situation is such that you expect to be overrun at any moment, then drop all pretence of military preparedness and act casually. Unless the enemy has an accurate description of your situation this unusual behavior will arouse suspicions. With luck he will be dissuaded from attacking.

Three Kingdoms Period China

In 234 BC, Kong Ming the famous strategist of Shu, launched an attack against the state of Wei by sending an advance force to scout for the enemy. Leading the army of Wei was Suma-I who also sent an advance force of fifty thousand troops. The two vanguards met and engaged in battle but the Wei forces were superior and won the day. The defeated Shu vanguard raced back to the main body of Kong Ming's army whose troops, seeing the look of fear in the faces of their comrades, thought that the enemy was upon them and fled in panic. Kong Ming and a few bodyguards fled to the city of Yangping with the Wei army in hot pursuit. Vastly outnumbered and unable to either retreat or sustain a siege, Kong Ming played a last resort strategy that made him famous throughout China. He removed all the guards and battle flags from the walls and had all four of the city gates flung open. When Suma-I approached the city he could see only a few old men nonchalantly sweeping the grounds within the gates. Kong-Ming was seen sitting in one of the towers smiling and playing his lute. Suma-I remarked to his advisors: "That man seems to be too happy for my comfort. Doubtless he has some deep laid scheme in mind to bring us all to disaster." As they stood spell bound, the strains of Kong Ming's lute reached their ears and this only heightened their sense of foreboding. Such peculiar behavior was too suspicious and, fearing a clever trap, Suma-I turned his army back and retreated. After the army left Kong Ming and his remaining troops departed in the opposite direction and made their way safely back to their capital.

Strategy 33

The Strategy of Sowing Discord

Undermine your enemy's ability to fight by secretly causing discord between him and his friends, allies, advisors, family, commanders, soldiers, and population. While he is preoccupied settling internal disputes his ability to attack or defend, is compromised.

Six Dynasties Period China

In the later Wei dynasty, the emperor Tai Wu led a hundred thousand troops against the Song general Zang Zhi. The emperor, with his superior forces, chased general Zhang to the city of Yu where he was cornered. The city was strongly fortified and so the emperor planned to surround it and starve the defenders into surrender. Feeling confident of his position, the emperor sent a cart carrying a large jar of wine to the city gate with the message asking for the traditional exchange of wine before commencing his siege of the city. Zang Zhi knew that he needed to fight a decisive battle quickly, or suffer defeat, saw this as an opportunity. He sent some soldiers to gratefully accept the jar of wine and in turn deliver another large jar sealed with the wine maker's stamp. When a cup of this wine was poured for the emperor it was discovered to be urine. This caused the emperor a humiliating loss of face before his own troops and in a rage ordered an immediate assault on the city. The defenders were well prepared and the bodies of the slain imperial troops piled up nearly to the top of the ramparts.In his haste and anger the emperor lost half his forces.

Strategy 34

The Strategy of Injuring Yourself

Pretending to be injured has two possible applications. In the first, the enemy is lulled into relaxing his guard since he no longer considers you to be an immediate threat. The second is a way of ingratiating yourself to your enemy by pretending the injury was caused by a mutual enemy.

Edo Period Japan

During the Tokugawa period, Kaei Juzo a former spy had come under suspicion and was in danger of being assassinated. It turned out that the man sent to kill him was a former acquaintance called Tonbe. Not wishing to kill his old friend, Tonbe and Juzo worked out the classic ploy as follows. Tonbe brought Juzo back as a prisoner to the Shogun. Juzo begged the Shogun to allow him one last dignity, permission to commit Harakiri. The Shogun, curious to see the notorious spy's bravery in death, allowed him that privilege. Juzo was given a tanto (dagger) that he plunged into his belly, and, cutting sideways, spilled his intestines onto the ground before falling over. The guards removed the body and threw it in the castle's moat. A short time later Juzo quietly swum to shore and escaped the district. Knowing that his warrior's reputation would merit him the right of committing Harakiri, Juzo had strapped a dead fox across his abdomen, when the fox's intestines spilled out it was indistinguishable from human intestines.

Strategy 35

The Tactic of Combining Tactics

In important matters one should use several strategies applied simultaneously. Keep different plans operating in an overall scheme; in this manner if any one strategy fails you would still have several others to fall back on.

Warring States Era China

In 284 BC the state of Yan attacked and defeated Qi. The remaining Qi forces under the command of Tien Tan fled to the city of Ji Mo for a last stand. First, Tien Tan had the womenfolk line the city walls and beg for a peaceful surrender while he sent gold and treasure collected from the city's wealthiest citizens to general Qi Che with a note asking that the women and children be spared in return for the peaceful surrender of the city. These events convinced Qi Che that the city was truly about to capitulate and he allowed his troops to relax their guard. After this careful preparation Tien Tan felt the time was right to launch his counter attack. First he had the citizens of the city gather with drums and cooking pots and instructed them that on a signal they were to make as much noise as possible. He then had breaches made along the city walls from the inside. Next a herd of cattle was painted in bizarre patterns and knives and sickles tied to their horns and torches tied to their tails. Just before daylight three events occurred in rapid succession. The citizens within the city struck up a cacophony of noise that startled the sleeping Yan troops. Then the torches on the tails of the cattle were lit and they were released through the breaches in the wall. The enraged animals ran madly about the Yen camp killing stunned troops with their horns and setting fire to tents with their tails. Then Qi's crack troops rushed out from the gates to attack the now terrified and utterly confused troops. Tien Tan defeated the Yan army and went on to take more than seventy cities.

Strategy 36

If All Else Fails Retreat

If it becomes obvious that your current course of action will lead to defeat then retreat and regroup.

Ming Dynasty China

The Ming emperor Hwei Ti, had disposed of all his uncles except one who feigned madness. (See chapter 27) This very uncle, the prince of Yan, in 1403 led a huge army to the capital of Nanking to seize the throne. The city was surrounded and the emperor considered committing suicide when he was stopped by a eunuch who told him that his grandfather, the emperor Hong Wu, had left a chest in his care with orders that should any great crisis occur to threaten the dynasty then the reigning emperor should open the chest.

"Let us open it at once then," said the emperor, "and see what my father would do were he here now." When the lid was lifted the box was found to contain the robes of a Buddhist monk, a diploma, a razor, and ten ingots of silver. The emperor understood the meaning at once and with a handful of attendants fled the palace through a secret tunnel to a Buddhist temple. There he shaved his head and put on the robes. He made his way out of the city and all the way to Sichuan province where he lived in obscurity in a remote monastery.

Meanwhile the palace had burned down during the fighting and it was assumed that the emperor had died in the fire. Forty years later during the rein of emperor Ying Tsung (the fourth since Hwei Ti's time) an old Buddhist priest arrived at court and claimed to be the old emperor Hwei Ti. It turned out the man was an imposter but a rumor began that Hwei Ti was still alive. To quell the rumors and settle the issue, an official investigation was made which discovered that Hwei Ti was indeed still alive living as a Buddhist priest. The old emperor was invited back to the capital with great ceremony and he lived out his last days as a guest in the palace. However, he was kept under a watchful eye.

[Hugh]

Thirty six strategies of ancient China

http://www.chinastrategies.com/List.htm#Strategy 1
http://www.chinastrategies.com/list%202.htm#Strategy 19

Strategy 1

Fool the Emperor to Cross the Sea

Moving about in the darkness and shadows, occupying isolated places, or hiding behind screens will only attract suspicious attention. To lower an enemy's guard you must act in the open hiding your true intentions under the guise of common every day activities.

Japanese Folk Tale

There once lived a Samurai who was plagued by a large and clever rat who had the run of the house. This annoyed the Samurai to no end so he went to the village to buy a cat. A street vendor sold him a cat that he said would catch the rat and indeed the cat looked trim and fit. But the rat was even quicker than the cat and after a week with no success the Samurai returned the cat. This time the vendor pulled out a large and grizzled cat and guaranteed that no rat could escape this master mouser. The rat knew enough to stay clear of this tough alley cat, but when the cat slept, the rat ran about. Half the day the rat would hide, but the other half he again had the run of the place. The Samurai brought the cat back to the vendor who shook his head in despair saying he had given the Samurai his best cat and there was nothing more he could do. Returning home with his money, the Samurai happened upon a monk and sought his advice. After hearing the Samurai's story the monk offered him the services of the cat that lived in the temple. The cat was old and fat and he scarcely seemed to notice when he was carried away by the doubtful Samurai. For two weeks the cat did little more than sleep all day and night. The Samurai wanted to give the cat back to the temple but the monk insisted he keep him a while longer assuring him the rat's days were close to an end. The rat became accustomed to the presence of the lazy old cat and was soon up to his old tricks even, on occasion, brazenly dancing around the old cat as he slept. Then one day, as the rat went about his business without any concern, he passed close by the cat - who swiftly struck out his paw and pinned the rat to the floor. The rat died instantly.

Strategy 2

Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao

When the enemy is too strong to attack directly, then attack something he holds dear. Know that in all things he cannot be superior. Somewhere there is a gap in the armour, a weakness that can be attacked instead.

Warring States Era China

This strategy derives its name from a famous incident that occurred in 354 BC. At this time one of China's most renowned strategists, Sun Bin (A descendent of the even then famous Sun Zi) was an advisor to the king of Qi. Sun had earlier been at the court of Wei but another minister, Pang Juan, became jealous of Sun's cleverness. Through court intrigues he had Sun framed as a spy, sentenced to mutilation, and imprisoned. Sun escaped and fled to Qi. Several years later the king of Wei appointed the same Pang Juan as commander of the army and sent him to attack the capital of Zhao. The king of Zhao immediately appealed to Qi for help. The king of Qi consulted his advisors who all spoke in favour of rushing to aid their ally, only Sun Bin recommended against attacking. Sun advised: " To intervene between two warring armies is like trying to divert a tidal way by standing in its path. It would be better to wait until both armies have worn themselves out." The king agreed to wait.

The siege of Zhao had lasted more than a year when Sun Bin decided the time was ripe to come to Zhao's aid. The king of Qi appointed prince Tian Ji as general and Sun as military advisor. Tian Ji wanted to attack the Wei forces directly to lift the siege of Zhao, but again Sun advised against direct intervention saying: " Since most of Wei's troops are out of the country engaged in the siege, their own defence must be weak. By attacking the capital of Wei, we will force the Wei army to return to defend their own capital thereby lifting the siege of Zhao while destroying the Wei forces in turn." Tian Ji agreed to the plan and divided his army into two parts, one to attack the capital of Wei, and the other to prepare an ambush along the route to the capital.

When the Wei general Pang Juan heard that the capital was being attacked, he rushed his army back to defend the capital. Weakened and exhausted from the year long siege and the forced march, the Wei troops were completely caught by surprise in the ambush and suffered heavy losses. Chao was thus rescued while Pang Juan barely escaped back to Wei to recoup his losses. Sun Pin would later defeat his nemesis Pang Juan using another classic strategy.

Strategy 3

Kill with a Borrowed Sword

When you do not have the means to attack your enemy directly, then attack using the strength of another. Trick an ally into attacking him, bribe an official to turn traitor, or use the enemy's own strength against him.

Warring States Era China

Chang Tuo defected from Western Zhou and went to Eastern Zhou where he revealed all of Western Zhou's state secrets. Eastern Zhou rejoiced while Western Zhou was furious. Minister Feng Chu said to the king of Western Zhou: "I can assassinate that man if your highness will give me thirty catties of gold." The king consented and the next day Feng Chu sent an agent to the Eastern Zhou court bearing the gold and a letter addressed to Chang Tuo. The letter read: `This is to remind Chang Tuo that you must complete your mission as soon as possible for the longer the delay the more likely you will be found out.' Before the first agent departed, Feng Chu then sent another agent to the Eastern Zhou border guards informing them that a spy would be crossing the border that night. When the second agent arrived at the border he was stopped and searched. The border guards found the gold and the letter to Chang Tuo and turned them over to the Zhou court officials. Shortly afterwards Chang Tuo was executed

Strategy 4

Await the Exhausted Enemy at Your Ease

It is an advantage to choose the time and place for battle. In this way you know when and where the battle will take place, while your enemy does not. Encourage your enemy to expend his energy in futile quests while you conserve your strength. When he is exhausted and confused, you attack with energy and purpose.

Chinese Folk Tale

The emperor Xuan of Zhou loved to gamble on cock fights and kept a stable of specially bred fighting roosters. Although they were strong and fierce they would nevertheless lose against the roosters trained by Ji Xing Ze. The emperor therefore hired Ji to train his roosters.

Ten days had passed when the emperor went to the stables to ask if they were ready to fight.

"No." said Ji, " They are far too fierce and proud of their strength. They rush to attack even the slightest noise."

After another ten days passed the emperor returned to enquire again.

"Not yet. They are still haughty and jump at everything that moves."

After another ten days the emperor again asked the question.

"No, still not yet. Although they no longer rush to attack, they still raise their hackles and stare fiercely at the slightest provocation."

After yet another ten days the emperor again asked if the roosters were ready.

"Yes, they are nearly ready. Although some still crow from time to time, none ever change their countenance. From a distance they appear as steady is if they were made of wood. Before them, their untrained opponents would not dare accept their challenge and could only turn back and run."

Strategy 5

Loot a Burning House

When a country is beset by internal conflicts, when disease and famine ravage the population, when corruption and crime are rampant, then it will be unable to deal with an outside threat. This is the time to attack.

Warring States Era China

Qi and Han were allies when Chang Yi attacked Han with the combined forces of Qin and Wei. Han asked Qi for assistance. The king of Qi said:" Han is our ally and since Qin has attacked her we must go to her rescue." But his minister Tian-chen Su disagreed saying: "Your majesty's planning is faulty. You should merely agree to assist Han but take no action there. However, in the kingdom of Yan, their king has recently resigned the throne to his despised prime minister. This has enraged both the noble houses and the common people causing turmoil at court. Now if Qin attacks Han, Chu and Chao will surely come to her aid and this will be as good as heaven bestowing Yan upon us."

The king approved and promised the Han envoy assistance before sending him back to Han believing he had Qi's backing. When Qin attacked Han, Chu and Chao intervened as expected. While all the major kingdoms were thus engaged in the battle for Han, Qi quickly and quietly attacked Yan. Within thirty days Yan was captured.


Strategy 6

Clamor in the East, Attack in the West

In any battle the element of surprise can provide an overwhelming advantage. Even when face to face with an enemy, surprise can still be employed by attacking where he least expects it. To do this you must create an expectation in the enemy's mind through the use of a feint.

Song Dynasty China

Once there was an official who was transferred to the capital. The front part of the inn where he stayed was a teahouse, and across the street was a shop that sold expensive dyed silks. Whenever he had nothing to do, he would sit at a table watching the people and activity on the street. One day he noticed with surprise that several suspicious looking characters were walking back and forth observing the silk shop with great interest. One of them came up to his table and whispered: "We're in the robbery business and we're here to steal those fine silks. Since you noticed us I came to ask you not to mention it."

"That has nothing to do with me," the official replied. "Why should I say anything about it?"

The fellow thanked him and left him. The official thought to himself: 'the silk shop has its wares openly displayed on a busy street. In broad daylight, with a thousand eyes watching, if they have the skill to steal those silks, then they must be smart thieves indeed.' So he watched carefully to see how they would manage it. But what he saw was only the same people walking back and forth in front of the silk shop. Sometimes they gathered on the left, sometimes on the right. The official sat watching until after sunset when everyone had gone and the shop had closed. "Those fools." said the official to himself. "They were putting one over on me." When he returned to his room to order some food, he discovered that all his belongings were gone.

Strategy 7

Create Something From Nothing

You use the same feint twice. Having reacted to the first and often the second feint as well, the enemy will be hesitant to react to a third feint. Therefore the third feint is the actual attack catching your enemy with his guard down.

Tang Dynasty China

During the An Lushan rebellion in 756 AD the Tang general Chang Shun was under siege by the forces of general Linghu Chao. Outnumbered twenty to one, the defending Tang forces soon ran out of arrows. To remedy this general Chang ordered his men to make straw dummies and to dress them in black uniforms. That night the dummies were lowered over the city walls by ropes, accompanied to the beat of war drums and gongs. General Linghu thought the enemy was launching a surprise night offensive and ordered his archers to shower the figures descending the walls with arrows. Once the dummies where riddled with arrows the Tang soldiers pulled them back up the walls and thus restored their supply of arrows.

The next day general Linghu realized he had been tricked and attacked the walls in revenge for being humiliated. That night the Tang again lowered the dummies but General Linghu ordered his men to ignore them believing it was the same trick to get more arrows. When general Chang saw that no one was firing at the straw dummies, he ordered that five hundred of his best troops be lowered instead. They made a lightning raid on the encamped soldiers who were caught completely by surprise. The siege was lifted and general Linghu's army fled the field.

Strategy 8

Openly Repair The Walkway, Secretly March to Chencang

Attack the enemy with two convergent forces. The first is the direct attack, one that is obvious and for which the enemy prepares his defense. The second is the indirect, the attack sinister, that the enemy does not expect and which causes him to divide his forces at the last minute leading to confusion and disaster.

Muromachi Period Japan

In 1560 one of Japan's greatest warlords, Oda Nobunaga, then still a minor commander, marched his force of 2,000 men to stop the incursion of a rival warlord Imagawa Yoshimoto. Even though Nobunaga was outnumbered twelve to one he set out humming a tune. Nobunaga's scouts reported that Imagawa was resting his troops at a village that was nestled near a narrow gorge that Nobunaga knew would be ideal for a surprise attack.

The scouts further reported that Imagawa's troops were celebrating and viewing the heads taken in a previous battle. Nobunaga devised the following ploy. He made camp some distance away from the village. He placed numerous flags and had straw dummies made to give the impression that a large host had arrived. Imagawa's forces thus expected an attack to come from the direction the enemy camp. Meanwhile Nobunaga's troops secretly made a forced march in a wide circle in order to come up from behind the Imagawa encampment. Weather favored Nobunaga's scheme for late in the day there was a heavy downpour. Taking advantage of the foul weather, Nobunaga's troops launched a sudden attack from the rear. So unexpected was this attack that Imagawa a first thought that a brawl had broken out among his own troops. Only when he saw two enemy Samurai charging towards him did he realize he was under attack. The realization came too late and Imagawa was beheaded and his troops scattered. The battle lasted only a few minutes but it made Oda Nobunaga's reputation and he quickly rouse in power until he became one of Japan's greatest warlords.

Strategy 9

Observe the Fire on the Opposite Shore

Delay entering the field of battle until all the other players have become exhausted fighting amongst themselves. Then go in full strength and pick up the pieces.

Hojo Regency Japan

In 1583 the great general Toyotomi Hideyoshi was positioning his forces against Akechi Mitsuhide in what would be the battle of Yamazaki. Shortly after the battle had engaged, Tsetsui Junkeian, an ally of Mitsuhide arrived on the scene. Impressed by the superior forces of Hideyoshi, he refused to attack but instead ordered his men to line up in battle formation on a hill above the Hora-ga-toge pass where he could watch the battle before deciding which general to side with. Seeing Hideyoshi gaining the advantage he betrayed his ally and sent his troops over to Hideyoshi's side. This incident was never forgotten and henceforth the Japanese equivalent of `Watching the fire...' is known as `To wait at Hora-ga-toge.'

Strategy 10

Hide Your Dagger Behind a Smile

Charm and ingratiate yourself to your enemy. When you have gained his trust, you move against him in secret.

Warring States Era China

The king of Wei sent a beautiful courtesan to the king of Chu who took great delight in the new girl. His queen, Zheng Xiu, knowing how fond the king was of his new woman, treated the newcomer as a sister supplying her with gifts and treasures and whatever she needed. The king hearing of this summoned his queen and said: AA woman serves a man with her beauty and thus jealousy is a part of her very nature. Yet you, knowing how much the new woman pleases me, have treated her more kindly than I have myself. These actions are those of a child to her parents or a minister to his ruler, how unexpected it is to find this in a queen to her husband." The queen thus knew that her husband did not suspect her of jealousy. When she next met with the new girl the queen told her: "His majesty is much taken with your beauty but he dislikes the shape of your nose. When next you serve him be sure to cover it with your hand." Grateful for the advice, when she next served the king this is what she did.

The next day the king asked his queen: "The new woman covers her nose when she is with me. Do you know why?"

"I know." replied the queen.

"Well then no matter how unpleasant you must tell me the reason."

"It seems she does not like the way your majesty smells."

"The shrew!" cried the king.

In a rage the king ordered that the unfortunate girl's nose be cut off.

Strategy 11

Sacrifice the Plum Tree In Place of the Peach

There are circumstances in which you must sacrifice short-term objectives in order to gain the long-term goal. This is the scapegoat strategy whereby someone else suffers the consequences so that the rest do not.

Three Kingdoms Period China

On one of his campaigns Cao Cao was running short of food. He asked his supply sergeant what he could do. The sergeant suggested reducing the rations by secretly using a smaller cup to parcel out the rice. Cao Cao praised the sergeant and gave his consent to use the smaller measuring cup. After a few days the soldiers began to complain and accused their commander of cheating them. Cao Cao again called in the supply sergeant and told him the situation.

"I will do anything I can to help but what would you have me do?" asked the sergeant.

"I'm afraid I am going have to borrow your head." replied Cao Cao and he had the sergeant decapitated and his head stuck on a tall pole with a banner that read "Caught cheating on supplies by using a smaller measuring cup."

Strategy 12

Seize the Opportunity To Lead a Sheep Away

While carrying out your plans be flexible enough to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself, however small, and avail yourself of any profit, however slight.

Yuan Dynasty China

During the final days of the Yuan dynasty, rebellion had broken out throughout the empire. Initially there were several contenders vying to be the first to found a new dynasty on the imminent fall of the house of Yuan, but the field was narrowed to two; Chu Yuan-Chang and Chen Yifu. The two armies met at Poyang Lake where a naval engagement was to take place. General Chen had the advantage of both troops and ships. His ships were large and sturdy and he had them lined up side to side across the entire expanse of the lake. He furthermore had the ships joined together with iron chains so as to create an impenetrable barrier. General Chu sent his ships to attack but they were defeated having failed to break through the cordon. Fortunately for Chu the next day a violent northwest gale began to blow. Since Chen's flotilla was situated downwind, Chu took advantage of the situation to launch fireboats against the barrier. Soon Chen's troops were in a frenzy to save their ships from both the rising storm and the fire, which was fanned into a blazing fierceness by the wind. Taking advantage of the panic and confusion that ensued, Chu launched his own fleet into the attack and they completely defeated Chen's forces. An arrow through his eye killed General Chen while general Chu became the founder of the Ming Dynasty.

Strategy 13

Beat The Grass To Startle The Snake

When you cannot detect the opponent's plans launch a direct, but brief, attack and observe your opponent reactions. His behavior will reveal his strategy.

Qin Dynasty

The notorious eunuch Zhao Gao is credited with helping to bring down the house of Qin ending China’s first and shortest imperial dynasty. After the first emperor died he conspired with the chief minister Li Si to dispose of the legitimate heir to the throne and install a weak and corrupt puppet emperor Huhei. (See Chapter 14) Having established his influence over the young emperor, Zhao Gao was nervous about possible opposition from the other ministers of state. So he devised a test to see which ones would be faithful to him. One day he brought a stag into the court and presented it to the emperor explaining that it was a horse.

"You’re mistaken, Prime Minister”, said the emperor, “You’ve called a stag a horse.”

Zhao Gao turned to the other ministers present and asked them whether it was a horse or stag. Some kept silent, others in an attempt to ingratiate themselves with the true power behind the throne agreed it was a horse, and still others said it was a stag. The emperor was under Zhao Gao’s control to such a degree that he believed he was going insane and that the stag really was a horse. Meanwhile, one of Zhao Gao’s spies was recording the answers given by each of the ministers. Afterwards, Zhao Gao secretly framed charges against all those who had said it was a stag and had them executed.

Strategy 14

Borrow a Corpse to Raise the Spirit

Take an institution, a technology, or a method that has been forgotten or discarded and appropriate it for your own purpose. Revive something from the past by giving it a new purpose or to reinterpret and bring to life old ideas, customs, and traditions.

Han Dynasty China

When the emperor Huidi died in 188 BC he left no heir. His mother, the empress Lu, bought a child several years before his death and had her daughter-in-law pretend that it was her own. To cover her tracks the empress had the boy's natural mother executed. After the emperor's death, the empress had this boy installed on the throne with herself as regent. However, within two years the boy, after learning that his true mother had been executed, was heard to say: "When I become emperor I will know what to do." When the empress's spies reported the words spoken by the young emperor she had him murdered and another puppet set in his place. The empress ruled a prosperous empire for eight years through the six successive child emperors that she installed on the throne before dying of a mysterious illness. Rumor said her death was the result of a curse from one of her late husband's concubines, who was horribly mutilated and tortured according to the empress's precise instructions. The empress Lu is remembered in Chinese history as one of three notorious `dragon ladies' who had seized the imperial throne.

Strategy 15

Lure the Tiger Down the Mountain

Never directly attack a well-entrenched opponent. Instead lure him away from his stronghold and separate him from his source of strength.

Three Kingdoms Period China

In the year 199, Sun Ce had consolidated his newly conquered territories in the south and his next goal was the prosperous area of Lujiang to the north. However, Lujiang had a professional army and was well defended. In addition it also had the advantage of terrain, being accessible only through a couple of easily defended passes. Sun Ce's advisors cautioned against moving directly against such a well-entrenched and powerful state so they devised another scheme. Sun Ce sent an emissary laden with gifts and a letter to the king of Lujiang, Liu Xun. The letter praised the King's military skills and begged for his assistance. Sun Ce wrote: " For years the state of Shangliao has invaded my territory unhindered and carried away booty, yet we are too weak to launch a retaliatory raid. If Your Majesty would attack Shangliao we would give assistance and you could annex the state for yourself." Flattered and covetous of increasing his domains, The king of Lujiang disregarded the advice of his counselors and attacked the state of Shangliao. Several weeks later, while the king of Lujiang was busy laying siege to Shangliao's capital, Sun Ce attacked the almost undefended Lujiang and easily seized the capital. Without the expected support from Sun Ce, The king of Lujiang failed to take the capital of Shangliao and he returned only to find his own capital already in enemy hands. Sun Ce now had the advantage of the Lujiang terrain and the former king could do nothing but flee with his army.

Strategy 16

To Catch Something, First Let It Go

Cornered prey will often mount a final desperate attack. To prevent this you let the enemy believe he still has a chance for freedom. His will to fight is thus dampened by his desire to escape. When in the end the freedom is proven a falsehood the enemy's morale will be defeated and he will surrender without a fight.

Six Dynasties Period China

During the Southern Song period, general Tan Dao-Ji launched an attack against the north on behalf of the emperor. Throughout the campaign he seized cities and destroyed fortifications, taking more than four thousand prisoners. His advisors suggested that he should execute them all and erect a victory mound with the dead. Tan Dao-Ji replied: "At this time we have attacked the guilty and consoled the people. The army of a true king takes the upright as its position, so why is it necessary to slay the people?" He released all the prisoners and sent them back to their homes. These former prisoners told their kinsmen of their capture and release and of the fair treatment they received at the hands of general Tan. Thereupon the barbarians dwelling in the region were elated, and wherever general Tan, went a great many came forward to give their allegiance to the emperor.

Strategy 17

Toss Out A Brick To Attract Jade

Prepare a trap then lure your enemy into the trap by using bait. In war the bait is the illusion of an opportunity for gain. In life the bait is the illusion of wealth, power, and sex.

Warring States Era China

The earl of Zhi was preparing to attack Lesser Wei. To prepare for his attack he presented the king of Wei with four hundred mustangs and a beautiful white jade Bi. The king was overjoyed and his ministers all offered their congratulations, but one minister, Nan-wen Ci looked distressed. The king seeing his demeanor asked: "The great state is very pleased with us! Why then do you look troubled?" The minister replied: "One must always examine thoroughly a reward given for no merit and deference shown where no force has been applied. Four hundred mustangs and a white jade Bi constitute the kind of gift a small state might give when serving a great one. But in this case the larger state makes the gift. Your majesty should ponder this." As a precaution, the king of Wei told his commander of the border guards what his minister had cautioned and ordered his troops to be on full alert. Shortly thereafter, as the minister intimated, the earl of Zhi arrived at the border at the head of a large army. But when the earl saw the border guards posted at full strength, he retired saying: "Alas, there are worthy men in Wei, for they have anticipated my plans."

Strategy 18

To Catch the Bandits First Capture Their Leader

If the enemy's army is strong but is allied to the commander only by money or threats then, take aim at the leader. If the commander falls the rest of the army will disperse or come over to your side. If, however, they are allied to the leader through loyalty then beware, the army can continue to fight on after his death out of vengeance.

Spring and Autumn Period China

In 756 BC the rebel commander Yin Ziqi led an army to lay siege against the strategic city of Suiyang. The defending commander, Zhang Xun, noticed that Yin Ziqi oversaw the siege from well outside the range of the city's archers. He believed that if he could take out the leader the rebel's morale would sink and he would be able to launch a counter attack. He devised a plan with his best archers. The next time the rebels assailed the wall they were to shoot back using the branches of trees. When Yin Ziqi heard that the defenders were reduced to shooting with branches he felt certain the city was ready to be taken. Before the next assault he moved in closer to better oversee the final victory. Riding atop his horse he unknowingly came within range of the archers who had saved their arrows for just such a moment. One arrow hit Yin Ziqi in the left eye killing him instantly. The spectacle of their commander's death in front of almost the entire rebel army served to demoralize them to such an extent that they dispersed the field

Strategy 19

Steal The Firewood From Under the Pot

When faced with an enemy too powerful to engage directly you must first weaken him by undermining his foundation and attacking his source of power.

Legendary Era Japan

Japan's ancient hero Yamato Takeru was one of the eighty children of emperor Keiko. One day he was sent to kill a notorious outlaw who was such an expert swordsman that all who had gotten in his way were killed. Yamato Takeru did not intend to duel with the bandit and pretended to be ignorant of the man's reputation in order to befriend him. They became such good friends that they even went swimming together on a regular basis. When Yamato Takeru was assured the bandit harbored no suspicions he was ready to act. One day when they went swimming he brought with him a wooden sword that he hid in his travel kit. They were in the habit of racing each other around a small island but this time while they were racing Takeru let the bandit take the lead and, once he was out of sight behind the island, Takeru swam back to shore and quickly replaced the bandit's sword with the wooden one. After they had gotten dressed Takeru turned to the bandit and revealed his true purpose. The bandit immediately went for his sword, but the wooden sword had become wedged in the scabbard. While he was struggling to draw the wooden sword, Takeru took the bandit's head off in a single stroke.

Strategy 20

Trouble The Water To Catch The Fish

Before engaging your enemy's forces create confusion to weaken his perception and judgment. Do something unusual, strange, and unexpected as this will arouse the enemy's suspicion and disrupt his thinking. A distracted enemy is thus more vulnerable.

Spring and Autumn Period China

In 632 BC the armies of Jin and Chu faced each other at Chengbu before the battle of the same name. Chu sent an envoy to Jin requesting to fight a chariot duel the next day to which the Jin ruler, Duke Wen, agreed. In the morning Duke Wen climbed to the top of an observation tower and looking down on his camp's preparations said: A Young and old conduct themselves according to ritual. They are fit for use!" He then ordered his troops to cut down trees to be used as part of an unorthodox tactic. While the chariot duel was underway Duke Wen launched a sudden cavalry attack against the Chu right wing causing it to collapse in. At the same time as the right was being pushed into the main body, the Jin troops in the center raised the retreat pennants and began pulling back. As the Jin troops retreated they dragged behind them the trees they had cut down earlier that morning. This raised such a dust cloud that the Chu commanders thought the Jin were fleeing in panic and eagerly gave chase. When the main body of the Chu army was enveloped in the cloud of dust they were unable to see that the Jin forces had split into two divisions and had turned around. The Jin attacked in a classical pincer movement on both of the Chu flanks. The result was a resounding defeat after which the Chu general was ordered to commit suicide. Duke Wen had taken advantage of the distraction provided by the chariot duel to launch both a surprise attack, and a retreat, manipulating the Chu forces into a trap.

Strategy 21

Shed Your Skin Like the Golden Cicada

When you are in danger of being defeated, and your only chance is to escape and regroup, then create an illusion. While the enemy's attention is focused on this artifice, secretly remove your men leaving behind only the facade of your presence.

Three Kingdoms Period China

The warlord Cao Cao of Wei, was pursuing the fleeing army and population of Shu led by the heroes of the Peach Grove, Liu Pei and Chang Fei. The retreating column came upon the Changpan bridge over the Wei river with the enemy army only hours behind. On the opposite side of the river there was heavy forest. Chang Fei turned to his general Liu Pei and said: "This bridge is the only crossing point for miles and provides us with an advantage. You take the army and people across while I hold off the Wei army to give you as much of a lead as possible." After the Shu army had crossed over, Chang Fei sent his small group of cavalrymen across the bridge into the forest where they tied branches to their horses tails and rode around in circles. Chang Fei remained sitting on his charger in the middle of the bridge. When the pursuing army of Wei came upon the sight of Chang Fei alone on the bridge they stopped. Cao Cao noticed the huge dust cloud in the distance behind the woods and suspected a trap. Chang Fei roared out a challenge to the Wei army but Cao Cao, now convinced this was a ruse, turned his men around to retreat. Chang Fei seeing the Wei army turn about spurred his charger towards the Wei as though to attack them single handedly. This so unnerved the Wei forces that they made a mad scramble to escape the area convinced a trap was closing around them. This trick bought Lui Pei and Chang Fei enough time to escape with their men and regroup at Chianling.

Strategy 22

Shut the Door to Catch the Thief

If you have the chance to completely capture the enemy then you should do so thereby bringing the battle or war to a quick and lasting conclusion. To allow your enemy to escape plants the seeds for future conflict. But if they succeed in escaping, be wary of giving chase.

Warring States Era China

In 449 BC the state of Wu had invaded the state of Yue and carried off its duke Guo Jian holding him prisoner for three years before releasing him back to his kingdom. When he returned Guo Jian planned his revenge. For seven years he ruled with benevolence and generosity making a reputation as a wise and virtuous ruler until he felt his loyal subjects were prepared to undergo any hardship for him. He accordingly assembled his forces and attacked Wu gaining a decisive victory.(See Chapter 5) The king of Wu had to flee but it would only be a matter of time before he was caught. He sent ambassadors to Guo Jian begging for mercy. They reminded him of how Wu, though she had him firmly in her grasp, had released him to return to his state. The king of Wu now asked to be granted the same favor. Guo Jian was contemplating granting this appeal when his prime minister Fan Li intervened and said: "When heaven gave the duke of Wu the grand opportunity for gaining power he did not take advantage of it and so he is a fugitive today. Should you fail to accept what fortune has now given you, you may be driven from your state, and then all the years of hardships you have bourn will have been endured in vain." The duke was swayed by the argument and sent the ambassador back with the message that he would not grant any mercy. When the king of Wu received the message he gave up all hope and committed suicide.

Strategy 23

Befriend a Distant Enemy to Attack One Nearby

It is known that nations that border each other become enemies while nations separated by distance and obstacles make better allies. When you are the strongest in one field, your greatest threat is from the second strongest in your field, not the strongest from another field.

Han Dynasty China

In 110 AD the province of Honan had suffered through droughts and floods, the harvests were poor and the people starving. The corrupt government only made matters worse and soon the whole province was in chaos. The numerous bands of bandits and robbers that roamed the countryside pillaging and terrorizing the population thwarted any hope of bringing in outside relief. A provincial official by the name of Yu-Hu was appointed full powers to try to restore some order to the province. When he arrived at the district capital he issued a notice that he was going to organized a military force and that he was looking for recruits. First he promised a pardon for past crimes and immunity for anyone who joined up. Then he announced that he was looking for men for three classes of troops. The first class of troops were to consist of men who had committed robbery and murder. They would be the commanders and receive the highest salaries. The second class would consist of men who had committed mere thievery. They would receive the next highest salaries. The third class would consist of men who had joined the robber bands simply because they were lazy and wished to avoid real labor. They would be paid the lowest salaries. Within a couple of weeks Yu-Hu had over three hundred new recruits. When they had been issued uniforms and weapons he had them paraded before him and addressed them as follows: "Your past deeds are now forgiven and you are free from prosecution. But you must still atone for the crimes you have committed against society. To do this you must now go out and hunt down all your past colleagues who have not answered my call." This they did and within a year the fraternity of bandits was extinct and the countryside made safe.

Strategy 24

Borrow the Road to Conquer Guo

Borrow the resources of an ally to attack a common enemy. Once the enemy is defeated, use those resources to turn on the ally that lent you them in the first place.

Spring and Autumn Period China

The small states of Yu and Guo bordered the larger state of Jin. Duke Xian of Jin desired to conquer both states. This desire was not unknown to the two smaller states and both had taken steps to defend their borders with Jin. The duke's general, Xun Xi, suggested they make a roundabout attack at Guo through the state of Yu to catch them by surprise. General Xun suggested that since the duke of Yu was a greedy man he could be bribed with gifts of jade and horses in exchange for safe passage through his territory. Duke Xian objected to the idea of giving away so much treasure and asked: "What if the duke of Yu accepts our gifts but refuses us passage?" but general Xun replied: "If he doesn't intend to let us through, then he wouldn't accept them, but if he does accept the gifts, and he does let us through, then it will only mean that the treasure is stored temporarily in his storehouse rather than ours."

When the bribe was sent to the duke of Yu one of his ministers, Gong Ziqi, cautioned against accepting them saying: "Yu is to Guo, like lips are to teeth. Our ancestors had a saying; `If the lips are gone, the teeth will be exposed to cold'. That Guo is able to exist depends on Yu while Yu's ability to survive hinges on Guo. If we make way for Jin, then the day will see Guo perish in the morning to be followed by Yu in the evening. Why should we ever let Jin pass?" The duke of Yu, however, refused to listen to this advice. Jin was given safe passage and succeeded in conquering Guo. On their way back they stopped to conquered Yu. After taking the Yu capital and recovering the treasure, general Xun returned the jade and horses to the duke. Duke Xian was pleased and said in good humor "The jade is untouched but the horses seem to have gained some more teeth!"

Strategy 25

Replace The Beams With Rotten Timbers

Disrupt the enemy's formations, interfere with their methods of operations, change the rules in which they are used to following, go contrary to their standard training. In this way you remove the supporting pillar, the common link that makes a group of men an effective fighting force.

Six Dynasties Period China

In 383 emperor Fu Jian of Qin, personally led an advance guard of 5,000 horses to attack the Jin general Xie Shi. Discovering that the Jin forces were greater than he anticipated, the emperor had his army form defensive positions along the bank of the river. The Jin armies likewise encamped on the opposite side. Neither side wished to cross first since it was well known that an army is most vulnerable when crossing a river. General Shi sent an envoy across the river with a message that read: " My lord, your army has entered deeply into our territory, and in deploying your ranks you have crowded upon the river. This is the plan for a lengthy stalemate. Do you really want to fight? If you will order your men to withdraw to a safe distance and allow us to cross we can then fight it out and settle the matter quickly."

The emperor agreed to the request. When his advisors objected, emperor Fu Jian told them that he planned to turn his army about and attack the Jin after half their troops had crossed. But general Xie anticipated the emperor's treachery and sent scouts disguised as imperial troops to infiltrate the Qin ranks. When the emperor ordered his army to pull back, the disguised Jin troops began to incite panic by spreading the rumor that Qin was withdrawing in defeat and that Jin was in hot pursuit. The retreat quickly turned into a rout as the Qin troops broke formation to escape. The emperor and his generals raced frantically after the fleeing soldiers with whips in hand to stop them, but to no avail. The Jin army quickly crossed the river and pursued the Qin forces inflicting enormous casualties. The emperor was wounded and narrowly escaped. He was captured and strangled a few weeks later.

Strategy 26

Point At The Mulberry But Curse The Locust Tree

To discipline, control, or warn others whose status or position excludes them from direct confrontation; use analogy and innuendo. Without directly naming names, those accused cannot retaliate without revealing their complicity.

Han Dynasty China

After Gaozu had become Emperor he invested many of his followers. One day while he was strolling along the balcony of his palace he noticed several ministers milling about below speaking in hushed tones. "What are they talking about?" he asked his advisor Chang Liang. "Your majesty does not know? They are plotting a revolt."

"But peace has been restored to the empire. Why should they be planning a revolt?"

"When your majesty rose from among the common people, it was through these men that you seized control of the empire. You have become the Son of Heaven, but those whom you have invested have all been close friends from the old days. Now these younger officers of your army, reckoning up the merits they have won, believe that there is not sufficient land in the whole empire to invest them all. So some of them fear they will not receive their just allotment. Therefore they plot rebellion."

"What should I do?" asked the Emperor

"Among all your followers whom do you dislike the most?"

"Yong Chi and I are ancient enemies," replied the Emperor.

"You must hurry and invest Yong Chi before anyone else, and make known what you have done to your other followers. When they see Yong Chi has been invested, they will all feel assured of their own rewards." said Chiang

The emperor agreed and held a feast honoring Yong Chi with lands and titles. When the other ministers left the banquet they said to each other happily, "If even Yong Chi can become a marquis, the rest of us have nothing to worry about!"

Strategy 27

Feign Madness But Keep Your Balance

Hide behind the mask of a fool, a drunk, or a madman to create confusion about your intentions and motivations. Lure your opponent into underestimating your ability until, overconfident, he drops his guard. Then you may attack.

Sui Dynasty China

During the final years of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty there appeared a ballad that foretold the fall of the house of Sui and the ascent of a man named Li as emperor. The ballad became immensely popular among the disaffected subjects of Emperor Yang's infamous rule. The emperor, being superstitious and believing in the prophecy himself, began a campaign to search out and execute anyone of importance with the surname Li. He had numerous ministers and officials along with their entire families put to the sword. A minor official whose name was, Li Yuan, was serving as superintendent in the provinces when he was summoned to the court. Li Yuan delayed appearing in court by claiming poor health. Li Yuan had a niece who was a palace maid and one day the emperor asked her where her uncle Li has been. The lady replied that her uncle was ill. The emperor said: "I wonder if he is courting death?" When Li Yuan heard this he was certain that if he obeyed the summons to court he would never return. Thereupon he feigned madness and pretended to become an incorrigible drunk. When the imperial spies reported Li's behavior the emperor thought that a madmen could never fulfill the prophesy and was no longer suspicious of Li. Surprisingly, two years later the Sui emperor placed Li in charge of a field army to defend the empire against barbarian incursions. Li fought bravely, won the respect of his troops, marched on the capital, and went on to found the illustrious Tang dynasty thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Strategy 28

Lure Your Enemy Onto the Roof, Then Take Away the Ladder

With baits and deceptions lure your enemy into treacherous terrain. Then cut off his lines of communication and avenue of escape. To save himself he must fight both your own forces and the elements of nature.

Han Dynasty China

After defeating the rebel kingdom of Wei, the famous Han general Han Xin was sent to quell the other two kingdoms that had revolted, Qi and Chu. General Han set out towards Qi but Chu sent its general Long Chu with a force of two hundred thousand men to intercept Han's invasion of Qi. The two armies met on opposite sides of the Wei river. General Han ordered his men to fill over ten thousand sandbags and carry them up-river to dam the flow of water. The next morning General Han led his army across the lowered river and attacked Chu, but after a short engagement pretended defeat and fled back across the river. General Long announced, " See I always knew Han Xin was a coward!" and he led his army across the river in pursuit. Through a prearranged signal, General Han had his men break the dam and free the pent up waters. Only half of the Chu army was across the river when the flood cut the army in half drowning those caught midstream. General Han then wheeled around his retreating forces and attacked the advance guard of Chu killing its general Long Chu. The remaining troops panicked and fled in all directions but were captured by the pursuing Han soldiers.

Strategy 29

Tie Silk Blossoms to the Dead Tree

Tying silk blossoms on a dead tree gives the illusion that the tree is healthy. Through the use of artifice and disguise make something of no value appear valuable; of no threat appear dangerous; of no use, useful.

Three Kingdoms Period China

During the final years of the Three Kingdoms, Suma Yan usurped the throne of Wei, made himself king, and changed the name of the kingdom from Wei to Jin. News of this reached the neighboring king of Wu who knew that his kingdom would be the next likely target of the ambitious Suma. He worried so much that he died several days later. Sun Hao then inherited the throne of Wu and immediately took to pleasure and vice neglecting state affairs. Over the next few years the new king of Wu grew increasingly paranoid and had dozens of his advisors and commanders and their entire families executed on the slightest suspicion and as a result he was widely reviled. Hearing that the people of Wu despised their king, Suma ordered a naval attack led by commander Wang Chun. The king of Wu had no idea of what to do against the impending naval attack. He convened what remained of his council and one advisor recommended stringing a bamboo barrier across the river to prevent the fleet from reaching the Wu capital of Jian Yeh. The king agreed and heavy bamboo cords were made and strung just below the surface. When Commander Wang heard about the barrier he laughed. He ordered his men to build huge rafts from timbers on which were erected straw dummies dressed in armor and holding weapons. The dummies were soaked in oil and a trip mechanism was attached that would ignite the dummies when the rafts struck the barrier. The rafts burned through the bamboo and continued on down stream to the Wu capital. The spectacle of a fleet of rafts full of burning men so frightened the Wu troops that they fled in terror. Suma captured Wu and went on to found the short-lived Jin dynasty.

Strategy 30

Exchange the Role of Guest for that of Host

Defeat the enemy from within by infiltrating the enemy's camp under the guise of cooperation, surrender, or peace treaties. In this way you can discover his weakness and then, when the enemy's guard is relaxed, strike directly at the source of his strength.

Japanese Folk Tale

In feudal Japan there lived a venerable Kendo master who decided to test his three highest-ranking students. He brought them one by one to an old temple in the nearby mountains where he told each student the following: "You have studied with me many years, now lets see if my teaching has been in vain. There within the temple awaits your test, pass and you will have graduated."

Within the dimly lit temple the Master had hidden four Samurai armed with clubs and instructions to jump anyone who entered the temple. The first student entered the temple and before his eyes could adjust to the light, was surprised and beaten by the Samurai."I am sorry, you have failed." Said the master.

The second student entered the temple and sensed the attackers. He was able to deftly evade their attack and defeat them. The student came out of the temple triumphant, but again the master said, "I am sorry, you have failed'

Finally the third student was brought to the temple and told about the test. The student replied, "But venerable master, protocol dictates that when entering a temple the master must always precede the student, so if you please, I shall follow you in." To which the master replied, "You rascal, you have learned all I can teach you."

Strategy 31

The Strategy of Beautiful Women

Send your enemy beautiful women to cause discord within his camp. This strategy can work on three levels. First, the ruler becomes so enamored with the beauty that he neglects his duties and allows his vigilance to wane. Second, other males at court will begin to display aggressive behavior that inflames minor differences hindering co-operation and destroying morale. Third, other females at court, motivated by jealousy and envy, begin to plot intrigues further exasperating the situation.

Han Dynasty China

In 199 BC the Han emperor, Gaozu personally led his army against the invading Xiongnu. The emperor, however, was no match against the cunning tribesmen and he was led into a trap and suffered serious casualties. (See chapter 15) He and his remaining forces retreated to the city of Pingcheng for refuge but were surrounded by some 300,000 horsemen. There the emperor remained surrounded for seven days with no possibility of bringing in either provisions or reinforcements. The emperor thought here was nothing left to do but surrender when his advisor, Chen Ping, came up with another strategy. Chen had a painting made of a beautiful Chinese princess that he secretly delivered to the wife of the Xiongnu commander. Along with the painting he sent a message that read: `My Emperor intends to surrender to your husband and so to win his favor he is sending him a present of one of China's famous beauties to be his concubine.' When the Xiongnu commander's wife saw the painting and read the note she was mad with jealousy. Fearing that such a beautiful rival would steal her husband's affections, she persuaded her husband to lift the siege and return home. The next morning when the emperor awoke he discovered the Xiongnu had left and he was able to return safely to his capital.

Strategy 32

The Strategy of Open City Gates

When the enemy is superior in numbers and your situation is such that you expect to be overrun at any moment, then drop all pretence of military preparedness and act casually. Unless the enemy has an accurate description of your situation this unusual behavior will arouse suspicions. With luck he will be dissuaded from attacking.

Three Kingdoms Period China

In 234 BC, Kong Ming the famous strategist of Shu, launched an attack against the state of Wei by sending an advance force to scout for the enemy. Leading the army of Wei was Suma-I who also sent an advance force of fifty thousand troops. The two vanguards met and engaged in battle but the Wei forces were superior and won the day. The defeated Shu vanguard raced back to the main body of Kong Ming's army whose troops, seeing the look of fear in the faces of their comrades, thought that the enemy was upon them and fled in panic. Kong Ming and a few bodyguards fled to the city of Yangping with the Wei army in hot pursuit. Vastly outnumbered and unable to either retreat or sustain a siege, Kong Ming played a last resort strategy that made him famous throughout China. He removed all the guards and battle flags from the walls and had all four of the city gates flung open. When Suma-I approached the city he could see only a few old men nonchalantly sweeping the grounds within the gates. Kong-Ming was seen sitting in one of the towers smiling and playing his lute. Suma-I remarked to his advisors: "That man seems to be too happy for my comfort. Doubtless he has some deep laid scheme in mind to bring us all to disaster." As they stood spell bound, the strains of Kong Ming's lute reached their ears and this only heightened their sense of foreboding. Such peculiar behavior was too suspicious and, fearing a clever trap, Suma-I turned his army back and retreated. After the army left Kong Ming and his remaining troops departed in the opposite direction and made their way safely back to their capital.

Strategy 33

The Strategy of Sowing Discord

Undermine your enemy's ability to fight by secretly causing discord between him and his friends, allies, advisors, family, commanders, soldiers, and population. While he is preoccupied settling internal disputes his ability to attack or defend, is compromised.

Six Dynasties Period China

In the later Wei dynasty, the emperor Tai Wu led a hundred thousand troops against the Song general Zang Zhi. The emperor, with his superior forces, chased general Zhang to the city of Yu where he was cornered. The city was strongly fortified and so the emperor planned to surround it and starve the defenders into surrender. Feeling confident of his position, the emperor sent a cart carrying a large jar of wine to the city gate with the message asking for the traditional exchange of wine before commencing his siege of the city. Zang Zhi knew that he needed to fight a decisive battle quickly, or suffer defeat, saw this as an opportunity. He sent some soldiers to gratefully accept the jar of wine and in turn deliver another large jar sealed with the wine maker's stamp. When a cup of this wine was poured for the emperor it was discovered to be urine. This caused the emperor a humiliating loss of face before his own troops and in a rage ordered an immediate assault on the city. The defenders were well prepared and the bodies of the slain imperial troops piled up nearly to the top of the ramparts.In his haste and anger the emperor lost half his forces.

Strategy 34

The Strategy of Injuring Yourself

Pretending to be injured has two possible applications. In the first, the enemy is lulled into relaxing his guard since he no longer considers you to be an immediate threat. The second is a way of ingratiating yourself to your enemy by pretending the injury was caused by a mutual enemy.

Edo Period Japan

During the Tokugawa period, Kaei Juzo a former spy had come under suspicion and was in danger of being assassinated. It turned out that the man sent to kill him was a former acquaintance called Tonbe. Not wishing to kill his old friend, Tonbe and Juzo worked out the classic ploy as follows. Tonbe brought Juzo back as a prisoner to the Shogun. Juzo begged the Shogun to allow him one last dignity, permission to commit Harakiri. The Shogun, curious to see the notorious spy's bravery in death, allowed him that privilege. Juzo was given a tanto (dagger) that he plunged into his belly, and, cutting sideways, spilled his intestines onto the ground before falling over. The guards removed the body and threw it in the castle's moat. A short time later Juzo quietly swum to shore and escaped the district. Knowing that his warrior's reputation would merit him the right of committing Harakiri, Juzo had strapped a dead fox across his abdomen, when the fox's intestines spilled out it was indistinguishable from human intestines.

Strategy 35

The Tactic of Combining Tactics

In important matters one should use several strategies applied simultaneously. Keep different plans operating in an overall scheme; in this manner if any one strategy fails you would still have several others to fall back on.

Warring States Era China

In 284 BC the state of Yan attacked and defeated Qi. The remaining Qi forces under the command of Tien Tan fled to the city of Ji Mo for a last stand. First, Tien Tan had the womenfolk line the city walls and beg for a peaceful surrender while he sent gold and treasure collected from the city's wealthiest citizens to general Qi Che with a note asking that the women and children be spared in return for the peaceful surrender of the city. These events convinced Qi Che that the city was truly about to capitulate and he allowed his troops to relax their guard. After this careful preparation Tien Tan felt the time was right to launch his counter attack. First he had the citizens of the city gather with drums and cooking pots and instructed them that on a signal they were to make as much noise as possible. He then had breaches made along the city walls from the inside. Next a herd of cattle was painted in bizarre patterns and knives and sickles tied to their horns and torches tied to their tails. Just before daylight three events occurred in rapid succession. The citizens within the city struck up a cacophony of noise that startled the sleeping Yan troops. Then the torches on the tails of the cattle were lit and they were released through the breaches in the wall. The enraged animals ran madly about the Yen camp killing stunned troops with their horns and setting fire to tents with their tails. Then Qi's crack troops rushed out from the gates to attack the now terrified and utterly confused troops. Tien Tan defeated the Yan army and went on to take more than seventy cities.

Strategy 36

If All Else Fails Retreat

If it becomes obvious that your current course of action will lead to defeat then retreat and regroup.

Ming Dynasty China

The Ming emperor Hwei Ti, had disposed of all his uncles except one who feigned madness. (See chapter 27) This very uncle, the prince of Yan, in 1403 led a huge army to the capital of Nanking to seize the throne. The city was surrounded and the emperor considered committing suicide when he was stopped by a eunuch who told him that his grandfather, the emperor Hong Wu, had left a chest in his care with orders that should any great crisis occur to threaten the dynasty then the reigning emperor should open the chest.

"Let us open it at once then," said the emperor, "and see what my father would do were he here now." When the lid was lifted the box was found to contain the robes of a Buddhist monk, a diploma, a razor, and ten ingots of silver. The emperor understood the meaning at once and with a handful of attendants fled the palace through a secret tunnel to a Buddhist temple. There he shaved his head and put on the robes. He made his way out of the city and all the way to Sichuan province where he lived in obscurity in a remote monastery.

Meanwhile the palace had burned down during the fighting and it was assumed that the emperor had died in the fire. Forty years later during the rein of emperor Ying Tsung (the fourth since Hwei Ti's time) an old Buddhist priest arrived at court and claimed to be the old emperor Hwei Ti. It turned out the man was an imposter but a rumor began that Hwei Ti was still alive. To quell the rumors and settle the issue, an official investigation was made which discovered that Hwei Ti was indeed still alive living as a Buddhist priest. The old emperor was invited back to the capital with great ceremony and he lived out his last days as a guest in the palace. However, he was kept under a watchful eye.

[Charles Martel]

Wow Hugh. That is some amazing stuff you posted. I'll need to wrap my head around it. Thanks! :)

[Hugh]

Anytime.
I've found this material invaluable for getting things done, whether used for political or career purposes.
Knowledge is power. :)

[Hugh]

Us and Them
The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism

Jerry Z. Muller

From Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080301faessay87203/jerry-z-muller/us-and-them.html

Summary: Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. But in fact, it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit, it is galvanized by modernization, and in one form or another, it will drive global politics for generations to come. Once ethnic nationalism has captured the imagination of groups in a multiethnic society, ethnic disaggregation or partition is often the least bad answer.

JERRY Z. MULLER is Professor of History at the Catholic University of America. His most recent book is The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought.

Projecting their own experience onto the rest of the world, Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. After all, in the United States people of varying ethnic origins live cheek by jowl in relative peace. Within two or three generations of immigration, their ethnic identities are attenuated by cultural assimilation and intermarriage. Surely, things cannot be so different elsewhere.

Americans also find ethnonationalism discomfiting both intellectually and morally. Social scientists go to great lengths to demonstrate that it is a product not of nature but of culture, often deliberately constructed. And ethicists scorn value systems based on narrow group identities rather than cosmopolitanism.

But none of this will make ethnonationalism go away. Immigrants to the United States usually arrive with a willingness to fit into their new country and reshape their identities accordingly. But for those who remain behind in lands where their ancestors have lived for generations, if not centuries, political identities often take ethnic form, producing competing communal claims to political power. The creation of a peaceful regional order of nation-states has usually been the product of a violent process of ethnic separation. In areas where that separation has not yet occurred, politics is apt to remain ugly.

A familiar and influential narrative of twentieth-century European history argues that nationalism twice led to war, in 1914 and then again in 1939. Thereafter, the story goes, Europeans concluded that nationalism was a danger and gradually abandoned it. In the postwar decades, western Europeans enmeshed themselves in a web of transnational institutions, culminating in the European Union (EU). After the fall of the Soviet empire, that transnational framework spread eastward to encompass most of the continent. Europeans entered a postnational era, which was not only a good thing in itself but also a model for other regions. Nationalism, in this view, had been a tragic detour on the road to a peaceful liberal democratic order.

This story is widely believed by educated Europeans and even more so, perhaps, by educated Americans. Recently, for example, in the course of arguing that Israel ought to give up its claim to be a Jewish state and dissolve itself into some sort of binational entity with the Palestinians, the prominent historian Tony Judt informed the readers of The New York Review of Books that "the problem with Israel ... [is that] it has imported a characteristically late-nineteenth-century separatist project into a world that has moved on, a world of individual rights, open frontiers, and international law. The very idea of a 'Jewish state' ... is an anachronism."

Yet the experience of the hundreds of Africans and Asians who perish each year trying to get into Europe by landing on the coast of Spain or Italy reveals that Europe's frontiers are not so open. And a survey would show that whereas in 1900 there were many states in Europe without a single overwhelmingly dominant nationality, by 2007 there were only two, and one of those, Belgium, was close to breaking up. Aside from Switzerland, in other words -- where the domestic ethnic balance of power is protected by strict citizenship laws -- in Europe the "separatist project" has not so much vanished as triumphed.

Far from having been superannuated in 1945, in many respects ethnonationalism was at its apogee in the years immediately after World War II. European stability during the Cold War era was in fact due partly to the widespread fulfillment of the ethnonationalist project. And since the end of the Cold War, ethnonationalism has continued to reshape European borders.

In short, ethnonationalism has played a more profound and lasting role in modern history than is commonly understood, and the processes that led to the dominance of the ethnonational state and the separation of ethnic groups in Europe are likely to reoccur elsewhere. Increased urbanization, literacy, and political mobilization; differences in the fertility rates and economic performance of various ethnic groups; and immigration will challenge the internal structure of states as well as their borders. Whether politically correct or not, ethnonationalism will continue to shape the world in the twenty-first century.

THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY

There are two major ways of thinking about national identity. One is that all people who live within a country's borders are part of the nation, regardless of their ethnic, racial, or religious origins. This liberal or civic nationalism is the conception with which contemporary Americans are most likely to identify. But the liberal view has competed with and often lost out to a different view, that of ethnonationalism. The core of the ethnonationalist idea is that nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith, and a common ethnic ancestry.

The ethnonationalist view has traditionally dominated through much of Europe and has held its own even in the United States until recently. For substantial stretches of U.S. history, it was believed that only the people of English origin, or those who were Protestant, or white, or hailed from northern Europe were real Americans. It was only in 1965 that the reform of U.S. immigration law abolished the system of national-origin quotas that had been in place for several decades. This system had excluded Asians entirely and radically restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe.

Ethnonationalism draws much of its emotive power from the notion that the members of a nation are part of an extended family, ultimately united by ties of blood. It is the subjective belief in the reality of a common "we" that counts. The markers that distinguish the in-group vary from case to case and time to time, and the subjective nature of the communal boundaries has led some to discount their practical significance. But as Walker Connor, an astute student of nationalism, has noted, "It is not what is, but what people believe is that has behavioral consequences." And the central tenets of ethnonationalist belief are that nations exist, that each nation ought to have its own state, and that each state should be made up of the members of a single nation.

The conventional narrative of European history asserts that nationalism was primarily liberal in the western part of the continent and that it became more ethnically oriented as one moved east. There is some truth to this, but it disguises a good deal as well. It is more accurate to say that when modern states began to form, political boundaries and ethnolinguistic boundaries largely coincided in the areas along Europe's Atlantic coast. Liberal nationalism, that is, was most apt to emerge in states that already possessed a high degree of ethnic homogeneity. Long before the nineteenth century, countries such as England, France, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden emerged as nation-states in polities where ethnic divisions had been softened by a long history of cultural and social homogenization.

In the center of the continent, populated by speakers of German and Italian, political structures were fragmented into hundreds of small units. But in the 1860s and 1870s, this fragmentation was resolved by the creation of Italy and Germany, so that almost all Italians lived in the former and a majority of Germans lived in the latter. Moving further east, the situation changed again. As late as 1914, most of central, eastern, and southeastern Europe was made up not of nation-states but of empires. The Hapsburg empire comprised what are now Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia and parts of what are now Bosnia, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and more. The Romanov empire stretched into Asia, including what is now Russia and what are now parts of Poland, Ukraine, and more. And the Ottoman Empire covered modern Turkey and parts of today's Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Serbia and extended through much of the Middle East and North Africa as well.

Each of these empires was composed of numerous ethnic groups, but they were not multinational in the sense of granting equal status to the many peoples that made up their populaces. The governing monarchy and landed nobility often differed in language and ethnic origin from the urbanized trading class, whose members in turn usually differed in language, ethnicity, and often religion from the peasantry. In the Hapsburg and Romanov empires, for example, merchants were usually Germans or Jews. In the Ottoman Empire, they were often Armenians, Greeks, or Jews. And in each empire, the peasantry was itself ethnically diverse.

Up through the nineteenth century, these societies were still largely agrarian: most people lived as peasants in the countryside, and few were literate. Political, social, and economic stratifications usually correlated with ethnicity, and people did not expect to change their positions in the system. Until the rise of modern nationalism, all of this seemed quite unproblematic. In this world, moreover, people of one religion, language, or culture were often dispersed across various countries and empires. There were ethnic Germans, for example, not only in the areas that became Germany but also scattered throughout the Hapsburg and Romanov empires. There were Greeks in Greece but also millions of them in the Ottoman Empire (not to mention hundreds of thousands of Muslim Turks in Greece). And there were Jews everywhere -- but with no independent state of their own.

THE RISE OF ETHNONATIONALISM

Today, people tend to take the nation-state for granted as the natural form of political association and regard empires as anomalies. But over the broad sweep of recorded history, the opposite is closer to the truth. Most people at most times have lived in empires, with the nation-state the exception rather than the rule. So what triggered the change?

The rise of ethnonationalism, as the sociologist Ernest Gellner has explained, was not some strange historical mistake; rather, it was propelled by some of the deepest currents of modernity. Military competition between states created a demand for expanded state resources and hence continual economic growth. Economic growth, in turn, depended on mass literacy and easy communication, spurring policies to promote education and a common language -- which led directly to conflicts over language and communal opportunities.

Modern societies are premised on the egalitarian notion that in theory, at least, anyone can aspire to any economic position. But in practice, everyone does not have an equal likelihood of upward economic mobility, and not simply because individuals have different innate capabilities. For such advances depend in part on what economists call "cultural capital," the skills and behavioral patterns that help individuals and groups succeed. Groups with traditions of literacy and engagement in commerce tend to excel, for example, whereas those without such traditions tend to lag behind.

As they moved into cities and got more education during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ethnic groups with largely peasant backgrounds, such as the Czechs, the Poles, the Slovaks, and the Ukrainians found that key positions in the government and the economy were already occupied -- often by ethnic Armenians, Germans, Greeks, or Jews. Speakers of the same language came to share a sense that they belonged together and to define themselves in contrast to other communities. And eventually they came to demand a nation state of their own, in which they would be the masters, dominating politics, staffing the civil service, and controlling commerce.

Ethnonationalism had a psychological basis as well as an economic one. By creating a new and direct relationship between individuals and the government, the rise of the modern state weakened individuals' traditional bonds to intermediate social units, such as the family, the clan, the guild, and the church. And by spurring social and geographic mobility and a self-help mentality, the rise of market-based economies did the same. The result was an emotional vacuum that was often filled by new forms of identification, often along ethnic lines.

Ethnonationalist ideology called for a congruence between the state and the ethnically defined nation, with explosive results. As Lord Acton recognized in 1862, "By making the state and the nation commensurate with each other in theory, [nationalism] reduces practically to a subject condition all other nationalities that may be within the boundary. . . . According, therefore, to the degree of humanity and civilization in that dominant body which claims all the rights of the community, the inferior races are exterminated, or reduced to servitude, or outlawed, or put in a condition of dependence." And that is just what happened.

THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION

Nineteenth-century liberals, like many proponents of globalization today, believed that the spread of international commerce would lead people to recognize the mutual benefits that could come from peace and trade, both within polities and between them. Socialists agreed, although they believed that harmony would come only after the arrival of socialism. Yet that was not the course that twentieth-century history was destined to follow. The process of "making the state and the nation commensurate" took a variety of forms, from voluntary emigration (often motivated by governmental discrimination against minority ethnicities) to forced deportation (also known as "population transfer") to genocide. Although the term "ethnic cleansing" has come into English usage only recently, its verbal correlates in Czech, French, German, and Polish go back much further. Much of the history of twentieth-century Europe, in fact, has been a painful, drawn-out process of ethnic disaggregation.

Massive ethnic disaggregation began on Europe's frontiers. In the ethnically mixed Balkans, wars to expand the nation-states of Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia at the expense of the ailing Ottoman Empire were accompanied by ferocious interethnic violence. During the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, almost half a million people left their traditional homelands, either voluntarily or by force. Muslims left regions under the control of Bulgarians, Greeks, and Serbs; Bulgarians abandoned Greek-controlled areas of Macedonia; Greeks fled from regions of Macedonia ceded to Bulgaria and Serbia.

World War I led to the demise of the three great turn-of-the-century empires, unleashing an explosion of ethnonationalism in the process. In the Ottoman Empire, mass deportations and murder during the war took the lives of a million members of the local Armenian minority in an early attempt at ethnic cleansing, if not genocide. In 1919, the Greek government invaded the area that would become Turkey, seeking to carve out a "greater Greece" stretching all the way to Constantinople. Meeting with initial success, the Greek forces looted and burned villages in an effort to drive out the region's ethnic Turks. But Turkish forces eventually regrouped and pushed the Greek army back, engaging in their own ethnic cleansing against local Greeks along the way. Then the process of population transfers was formalized in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne: all ethnic Greeks were to go to Greece, all Greek Muslims to Turkey. In the end, Turkey expelled almost 1.5 million people, and Greece expelled almost 400,000.

Out of the breakup of the Hapsburg and Romanov empires emerged a multitude of new countries. Many conceived of themselves as ethnonational polities, in which the state existed to protect and promote the dominant ethnic group. Yet of central and eastern Europe's roughly 60 million people, 25 million continued to be part of ethnic minorities in the countries in which they lived. In most cases, the ethnic majority did not believe in trying to help minorities assimilate, nor were the minorities always eager to do so themselves. Nationalist governments openly discriminated in favor of the dominant community. Government activities were conducted solely in the language of the majority, and the civil service was reserved for those who spoke it.

In much of central and eastern Europe, Jews had long played an important role in trade and commerce. When they were given civil rights in the late nineteenth century, they tended to excel in professions requiring higher education, such as medicine and law, and soon Jews or people of Jewish descent made up almost half the doctors and lawyers in cities such as Budapest, Vienna, and Warsaw. By the 1930s, many governments adopted policies to try to check and reverse these advances, denying Jews credit and limiting their access to higher education. In other words, the National Socialists who came to power in Germany in 1933 and based their movement around a "Germanness" they defined in contrast to "Jewishness" were an extreme version of a more common ethnonationalist trend.

The politics of ethnonationalism took an even deadlier turn during World War II. The Nazi regime tried to reorder the ethnic map of the continent by force. Its most radical act was an attempt to rid Europe of Jews by killing them all -- an attempt that largely succeeded. The Nazis also used ethnic German minorities in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and elsewhere to enforce Nazi domination, and many of the regimes allied with Germany engaged in their own campaigns against internal ethnic enemies. The Romanian regime, for example, murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews on its own, without orders from Germany, and the government of Croatia murdered not only its Jews but hundreds of thousands of Serbs and Romany as well.

POSTWAR BUT NOT POSTNATIONAL

One might have expected that the Nazi regime's deadly policies and crushing defeat would mark the end of the ethnonationalist era. But in fact they set the stage for another massive round of ethnonational transformation. The political settlement in central Europe after World War I had been achieved primarily by moving borders to align them with populations. After World War II, it was the populations that moved instead. Millions of people were expelled from their homes and countries, with at least the tacit support of the victorious Allies.

Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin all concluded that the expulsion of ethnic Germans from non-German countries was a prerequisite to a stable postwar order. As Churchill put it in a speech to the British parliament in December 1944, "Expulsion is the method which, so far as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble. . . . A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed at the prospect of the disentanglement of population, nor am I alarmed by these large transferences." He cited the Treaty of Lausanne as a precedent, showing how even the leaders of liberal democracies had concluded that only radically illiberal measures would eliminate the causes of ethnonational aspirations and aggression.

Between 1944 and 1945, five million ethnic Germans from the eastern parts of the German Reich fled westward to escape the conquering Red Army, which was energetically raping and massacring its way to Berlin. Then, between 1945 and 1947, the new postliberation regimes in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia expelled another seven million Germans in response to their collaboration with the Nazis. Together, these measures constituted the largest forced population movement in European history, with hundreds of thousands of people dying along the way.

The handful of Jews who survived the war and returned to their homes in eastern Europe met with so much anti-Semitism that most chose to leave for good. About 220,000 of them made their way into the American-occupied zone of Germany, from which most eventually went to Israel or the United States. Jews thus essentially vanished from central and eastern Europe, which had been the center of Jewish life since the sixteenth century.

Millions of refugees from other ethnic groups were also evicted from their homes and resettled after the war. This was due partly to the fact that the borders of the Soviet Union had moved westward, into what had once been Poland, while the borders of Poland also moved westward, into what had once been Germany. To make populations correspond to the new borders, 1.5 million Poles living in areas that were now part of the Soviet Union were deported to Poland, and 500,000 ethnic Ukrainians who had been living in Poland were sent to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Yet another exchange of populations took place between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, with Slovaks transferred out of Hungary and Magyars sent away from Czechoslovakia. A smaller number of Magyars also moved to Hungary from Yugoslavia, with Serbs and Croats moving in the opposite direction.

As a result of this massive process of ethnic unmixing, the ethnonationalist ideal was largely realized: for the most part, each nation in Europe had its own state, and each state was made up almost exclusively of a single ethnic nationality. During the Cold War, the few exceptions to this rule included Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. But these countries' subsequent fate only demonstrated the ongoing vitality of ethnonationalism. After the fall of communism, East and West Germany were unified with remarkable rapidity, Czechoslovakia split peacefully into Czech and Slovak republics, and the Soviet Union broke apart into a variety of different national units. Since then, ethnic Russian minorities in many of the post-Soviet states have gradually immigrated to Russia, Magyars in Romania have moved to Hungary, and the few remaining ethnic Germans in Russia have largely gone to Germany. A million people of Jewish origin from the former Soviet Union have made their way to Israel. Yugoslavia saw the secession of Croatia and Slovenia and then descended into ethnonational wars over Bosnia and Kosovo.

The breakup of Yugoslavia was simply the last act of a long play. But the plot of that play -- the disaggregation of peoples and the triumph of ethnonationalism in modern Europe -- is rarely recognized, and so a story whose significance is comparable to the spread of democracy or capitalism remains largely unknown and unappreciated.

DECOLONIZATION AND AFTER

The effects of ethnonationalism, of course, have hardly been confined to Europe. For much of the developing world, decolonization has meant ethnic disaggregation through the exchange or expulsion of local minorities.

The end of the British Raj in 1947 brought about the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, along with an orgy of violence that took hundreds of thousands of lives. Fifteen million people became refugees, including Muslims who went to Pakistan and Hindus who went to India. Then, in 1971, Pakistan itself, originally unified on the basis of religion, dissolved into Urdu-speaking Pakistan and Bengali-speaking Bangladesh.

In the former British mandate of Palestine, a Jewish state was established in 1948 and was promptly greeted by the revolt of the indigenous Arab community and an invasion from the surrounding Arab states. In the war that resulted, regions that fell under Arab control were cleansed of their Jewish populations, and Arabs fled or were forced out of areas that came under Jewish control. Some 750,000 Arabs left, primarily for the surrounding Arab countries, and the remaining 150,000 constituted only about a sixth of the population of the new Jewish state. In the years afterward, nationalist-inspired violence against Jews in Arab countries propelled almost all of the more than 500,000 Jews there to leave their lands of origin and immigrate to Israel. Likewise, in 1962 the end of French control in Algeria led to the forced emigration of Algerians of European origin (the so-called pieds-noirs), most of whom immigrated to France. Shortly thereafter, ethnic minorities of Asian origin were forced out of postcolonial Uganda. The legacy of the colonial era, moreover, is hardly finished. When the European overseas empires dissolved, they left behind a patchwork of states whose boundaries often cut across ethnic patterns of settlement and whose internal populations were ethnically mixed. It is wishful thinking to suppose that these boundaries will be permanent. As societies in the former colonial world modernize, becoming more urban, literate, and politically mobilized, the forces that gave rise to ethnonationalism and ethnic disaggregation in Europe are apt to drive events there, too.

THE BALANCE SHEET

Analysts of ethnic disaggregation typically focus on its destructive effects, which is understandable given the direct human suffering it has often entailed. But such attitudes can yield a distorted perspective by overlooking the less obvious costs and also the important benefits that ethnic separation has brought.

Economists from Adam Smith onward, for example, have argued that the efficiencies of competitive markets tend to increase with the markets' size. The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire into smaller nation-states, each with its own barriers to trade, was thus economically irrational and contributed to the region's travails in the interwar period. Much of subsequent European history has involved attempts to overcome this and other economic fragmentation, culminating in the EU.

Ethnic disaggregation also seems to have deleterious effects on cultural vitality. Precisely because most of their citizens share a common cultural and linguistic heritage, the homogenized states of postwar Europe have tended to be more culturally insular than their demographically diverse predecessors. With few Jews in Europe and few Germans in Prague, that is, there are fewer Franz Kafkas.

Forced migrations generally penalize the expelling countries and reward the receiving ones. Expulsion is often driven by a majority group's resentment of a minority group's success, on the mistaken assumption that achievement is a zero-sum game. But countries that got rid of their Armenians, Germans, Greeks, Jews, and other successful minorities deprived themselves of some of their most talented citizens, who simply took their skills and knowledge elsewhere. And in many places, the triumph of ethnonational politics has meant the victory of traditionally rural groups over more urbanized ones, which possess just those skills desirable in an advanced industrial economy.

But if ethnonationalism has frequently led to tension and conflict, it has also proved to be a source of cohesion and stability. When French textbooks began with "Our ancestors the Gauls" or when Churchill spoke to wartime audiences of "this island race," they appealed to ethnonationalist sensibilities as a source of mutual trust and sacrifice. Liberal democracy and ethnic homogeneity are not only compatible; they can be complementary.

One could argue that Europe has been so harmonious since World War II not because of the failure of ethnic nationalism but because of its success, which removed some of the greatest sources of conflict both within and between countries. The fact that ethnic and state boundaries now largely coincide has meant that there are fewer disputes over borders or expatriate communities, leading to the most stable territorial configuration in European history.

These ethnically homogeneous polities have displayed a great deal of internal solidarity, moreover, facilitating government programs, including domestic transfer payments, of various kinds. When the Swedish Social Democrats were developing plans for Europe's most extensive welfare state during the interwar period, the political scientist Sheri Berman has noted, they conceived of and sold them as the construction of a folkhemmet, or "people's home."

Several decades of life in consolidated, ethnically homogeneous states may even have worked to sap ethnonationalism's own emotional power. Many Europeans are now prepared, and even eager, to participate in transnational frameworks such as the EU, in part because their perceived need for collective self-determination has largely been satisfied.

NEW ETHNIC MIXING

Along with the process of forced ethnic disaggregation over the last two centuries, there has also been a process of ethnic mixing brought about by voluntary emigration. The general pattern has been one of emigration from poor, stagnant areas to richer and more dynamic ones.

In Europe, this has meant primarily movement west and north, leading above all to France and the United Kingdom. This pattern has continued into the present: as a result of recent migration, for example, there are now half a million Poles in Great Britain and 200,000 in Ireland. Immigrants from one part of Europe who have moved to another and ended up staying there have tended to assimilate and, despite some grumbling about a supposed invasion of "Polish plumbers," have created few significant problems.

The most dramatic transformation of European ethnic balances in recent decades has come from the immigration of people of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern origin, and here the results have been mixed. Some of these groups have achieved remarkable success, such as the Indian Hindus who have come to the United Kingdom. But in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, on balance the educational and economic progress of Muslim immigrants has been more limited and their cultural alienation greater.

How much of the problem can be traced to discrimination, how much to the cultural patterns of the immigrants themselves, and how much to the policies of European governments is difficult to determine. But a number of factors, from official multiculturalism to generous welfare states to the ease of contact with ethnic homelands, seem to have made it possible to create ethnic islands where assimilation into the larger culture and economy is limited.

As a result, some of the traditional contours of European politics have been upended. The left, for example, has tended to embrace immigration in the name of egalitarianism and multiculturalism. But if there is indeed a link between ethnic homogeneity and a population's willingness to support generous income-redistribution programs, the encouragement of a more heterogeneous society may end up undermining the left's broader political agenda. And some of Europe's libertarian cultural propensities have already clashed with the cultural illiberalism of some of the new immigrant communities.

Should Muslim immigrants not assimilate and instead develop a strong communal identification along religious lines, one consequence might be a resurgence of traditional ethnonational identities in some states -- or the development of a new European identity defined partly in contradistinction to Islam (with the widespread resistance to the extension of full EU membership to Turkey being a possible harbinger of such a shift).

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

Since ethnonationalism is a direct consequence of key elements of modernization, it is likely to gain ground in societies undergoing such a process. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that it remains among the most vital -- and most disruptive -- forces in many parts of the contemporary world.

More or less subtle forms of ethnonationalism, for example, are ubiquitous in immigration policy around the globe. Many countries -- including Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Serbia, and Turkey -- provide automatic or rapid citizenship to the members of diasporas of their own dominant ethnic group, if desired. Chinese immigration law gives priority and benefits to overseas Chinese. Portugal and Spain have immigration policies that favor applicants from their former colonies in the New World. Still other states, such as Japan and Slovakia, provide official forms of identification to members of the dominant national ethnic group who are noncitizens that permit them to live and work in the country. Americans, accustomed by the U.S. government's official practices to regard differential treatment on the basis of ethnicity to be a violation of universalist norms, often consider such policies exceptional, if not abhorrent. Yet in a global context, it is the insistence on universalist criteria that seems provincial.

Increasing communal consciousness and shifting ethnic balances are bound to have a variety of consequences, both within and between states, in the years to come. As economic globalization brings more states into the global economy, for example, the first fruits of that process will often fall to those ethnic groups best positioned by history or culture to take advantage of the new opportunities for enrichment, deepening social cleavages rather than filling them in. Wealthier and higher-achieving regions might try to separate themselves from poorer and lower-achieving ones, and distinctive homogeneous areas might try to acquire sovereignty -- courses of action that might provoke violent responses from defenders of the status quo.

Of course, there are multiethnic societies in which ethnic consciousness remains weak, and even a more strongly developed sense of ethnicity may lead to political claims short of sovereignty. Sometimes, demands for ethnic autonomy or self-determination can be met within an existing state. The claims of the Catalans in Spain, the Flemish in Belgium, and the Scots in the United Kingdom have been met in this manner, at least for now. But such arrangements remain precarious and are subject to recurrent renegotiation. In the developing world, accordingly, where states are more recent creations and where the borders often cut across ethnic boundaries, there is likely to be further ethnic disaggregation and communal conflict. And as scholars such as Chaim Kaufmann have noted, once ethnic antagonism has crossed a certain threshold of violence, maintaining the rival groups within a single polity becomes far more difficult.

This unfortunate reality creates dilemmas for advocates of humanitarian intervention in such conflicts, because making and keeping peace between groups that have come to hate and fear one another is likely to require costly ongoing military missions rather than relatively cheap temporary ones. When communal violence escalates to ethnic cleansing, moreover, the return of large numbers of refugees to their place of origin after a cease-fire has been reached is often impractical and even undesirable, for it merely sets the stage for a further round of conflict down the road.

Partition may thus be the most humane lasting solution to such intense communal conflicts. It inevitably creates new flows of refugees, but at least it deals with the problem at issue. The challenge for the international community in such cases is to separate communities in the most humane manner possible: by aiding in transport, assuring citizenship rights in the new homeland, and providing financial aid for resettlement and economic absorption. The bill for all of this will be huge, but it will rarely be greater than the material costs of interjecting and maintaining a foreign military presence large enough to pacify the rival ethnic combatants or the moral cost of doing nothing.

Contemporary social scientists who write about nationalism tend to stress the contingent elements of group identity -- the extent to which national consciousness is culturally and politically manufactured by ideologists and politicians. They regularly invoke Benedict Anderson's concept of "imagined communities," as if demonstrating that nationalism is constructed will rob the concept of its power. It is true, of course, that ethnonational identity is never as natural or ineluctable as nationalists claim. Yet it would be a mistake to think that because nationalism is partly constructed it is therefore fragile or infinitely malleable. Ethnonationalism was not a chance detour in European history: it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit that are heightened by the process of modern state creation, it is a crucial source of both solidarity and enmity, and in one form or another, it will remain for many generations to come. One can only profit from facing it directly.

[Hugh]

Us and Them
The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism

Jerry Z. Muller

From Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080301faessay87203/jerry-z-muller/us-and-them.html

Summary: Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. But in fact, it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit, it is galvanized by modernization, and in one form or another, it will drive global politics for generations to come. Once ethnic nationalism has captured the imagination of groups in a multiethnic society, ethnic disaggregation or partition is often the least bad answer.

JERRY Z. MULLER is Professor of History at the Catholic University of America. His most recent book is The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought.

Projecting their own experience onto the rest of the world, Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. After all, in the United States people of varying ethnic origins live cheek by jowl in relative peace. Within two or three generations of immigration, their ethnic identities are attenuated by cultural assimilation and intermarriage. Surely, things cannot be so different elsewhere.

Americans also find ethnonationalism discomfiting both intellectually and morally. Social scientists go to great lengths to demonstrate that it is a product not of nature but of culture, often deliberately constructed. And ethicists scorn value systems based on narrow group identities rather than cosmopolitanism.

But none of this will make ethnonationalism go away. Immigrants to the United States usually arrive with a willingness to fit into their new country and reshape their identities accordingly. But for those who remain behind in lands where their ancestors have lived for generations, if not centuries, political identities often take ethnic form, producing competing communal claims to political power. The creation of a peaceful regional order of nation-states has usually been the product of a violent process of ethnic separation. In areas where that separation has not yet occurred, politics is apt to remain ugly.

A familiar and influential narrative of twentieth-century European history argues that nationalism twice led to war, in 1914 and then again in 1939. Thereafter, the story goes, Europeans concluded that nationalism was a danger and gradually abandoned it. In the postwar decades, western Europeans enmeshed themselves in a web of transnational institutions, culminating in the European Union (EU). After the fall of the Soviet empire, that transnational framework spread eastward to encompass most of the continent. Europeans entered a postnational era, which was not only a good thing in itself but also a model for other regions. Nationalism, in this view, had been a tragic detour on the road to a peaceful liberal democratic order.

This story is widely believed by educated Europeans and even more so, perhaps, by educated Americans. Recently, for example, in the course of arguing that Israel ought to give up its claim to be a Jewish state and dissolve itself into some sort of binational entity with the Palestinians, the prominent historian Tony Judt informed the readers of The New York Review of Books that "the problem with Israel ... [is that] it has imported a characteristically late-nineteenth-century separatist project into a world that has moved on, a world of individual rights, open frontiers, and international law. The very idea of a 'Jewish state' ... is an anachronism."

Yet the experience of the hundreds of Africans and Asians who perish each year trying to get into Europe by landing on the coast of Spain or Italy reveals that Europe's frontiers are not so open. And a survey would show that whereas in 1900 there were many states in Europe without a single overwhelmingly dominant nationality, by 2007 there were only two, and one of those, Belgium, was close to breaking up. Aside from Switzerland, in other words -- where the domestic ethnic balance of power is protected by strict citizenship laws -- in Europe the "separatist project" has not so much vanished as triumphed.

Far from having been superannuated in 1945, in many respects ethnonationalism was at its apogee in the years immediately after World War II. European stability during the Cold War era was in fact due partly to the widespread fulfillment of the ethnonationalist project. And since the end of the Cold War, ethnonationalism has continued to reshape European borders.

In short, ethnonationalism has played a more profound and lasting role in modern history than is commonly understood, and the processes that led to the dominance of the ethnonational state and the separation of ethnic groups in Europe are likely to reoccur elsewhere. Increased urbanization, literacy, and political mobilization; differences in the fertility rates and economic performance of various ethnic groups; and immigration will challenge the internal structure of states as well as their borders. Whether politically correct or not, ethnonationalism will continue to shape the world in the twenty-first century.

THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY

There are two major ways of thinking about national identity. One is that all people who live within a country's borders are part of the nation, regardless of their ethnic, racial, or religious origins. This liberal or civic nationalism is the conception with which contemporary Americans are most likely to identify. But the liberal view has competed with and often lost out to a different view, that of ethnonationalism. The core of the ethnonationalist idea is that nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith, and a common ethnic ancestry.

The ethnonationalist view has traditionally dominated through much of Europe and has held its own even in the United States until recently. For substantial stretches of U.S. history, it was believed that only the people of English origin, or those who were Protestant, or white, or hailed from northern Europe were real Americans. It was only in 1965 that the reform of U.S. immigration law abolished the system of national-origin quotas that had been in place for several decades. This system had excluded Asians entirely and radically restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe.

Ethnonationalism draws much of its emotive power from the notion that the members of a nation are part of an extended family, ultimately united by ties of blood. It is the subjective belief in the reality of a common "we" that counts. The markers that distinguish the in-group vary from case to case and time to time, and the subjective nature of the communal boundaries has led some to discount their practical significance. But as Walker Connor, an astute student of nationalism, has noted, "It is not what is, but what people believe is that has behavioral consequences." And the central tenets of ethnonationalist belief are that nations exist, that each nation ought to have its own state, and that each state should be made up of the members of a single nation.

The conventional narrative of European history asserts that nationalism was primarily liberal in the western part of the continent and that it became more ethnically oriented as one moved east. There is some truth to this, but it disguises a good deal as well. It is more accurate to say that when modern states began to form, political boundaries and ethnolinguistic boundaries largely coincided in the areas along Europe's Atlantic coast. Liberal nationalism, that is, was most apt to emerge in states that already possessed a high degree of ethnic homogeneity. Long before the nineteenth century, countries such as England, France, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden emerged as nation-states in polities where ethnic divisions had been softened by a long history of cultural and social homogenization.

In the center of the continent, populated by speakers of German and Italian, political structures were fragmented into hundreds of small units. But in the 1860s and 1870s, this fragmentation was resolved by the creation of Italy and Germany, so that almost all Italians lived in the former and a majority of Germans lived in the latter. Moving further east, the situation changed again. As late as 1914, most of central, eastern, and southeastern Europe was made up not of nation-states but of empires. The Hapsburg empire comprised what are now Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia and parts of what are now Bosnia, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and more. The Romanov empire stretched into Asia, including what is now Russia and what are now parts of Poland, Ukraine, and more. And the Ottoman Empire covered modern Turkey and parts of today's Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Serbia and extended through much of the Middle East and North Africa as well.

Each of these empires was composed of numerous ethnic groups, but they were not multinational in the sense of granting equal status to the many peoples that made up their populaces. The governing monarchy and landed nobility often differed in language and ethnic origin from the urbanized trading class, whose members in turn usually differed in language, ethnicity, and often religion from the peasantry. In the Hapsburg and Romanov empires, for example, merchants were usually Germans or Jews. In the Ottoman Empire, they were often Armenians, Greeks, or Jews. And in each empire, the peasantry was itself ethnically diverse.

Up through the nineteenth century, these societies were still largely agrarian: most people lived as peasants in the countryside, and few were literate. Political, social, and economic stratifications usually correlated with ethnicity, and people did not expect to change their positions in the system. Until the rise of modern nationalism, all of this seemed quite unproblematic. In this world, moreover, people of one religion, language, or culture were often dispersed across various countries and empires. There were ethnic Germans, for example, not only in the areas that became Germany but also scattered throughout the Hapsburg and Romanov empires. There were Greeks in Greece but also millions of them in the Ottoman Empire (not to mention hundreds of thousands of Muslim Turks in Greece). And there were Jews everywhere -- but with no independent state of their own.

THE RISE OF ETHNONATIONALISM

Today, people tend to take the nation-state for granted as the natural form of political association and regard empires as anomalies. But over the broad sweep of recorded history, the opposite is closer to the truth. Most people at most times have lived in empires, with the nation-state the exception rather than the rule. So what triggered the change?

The rise of ethnonationalism, as the sociologist Ernest Gellner has explained, was not some strange historical mistake; rather, it was propelled by some of the deepest currents of modernity. Military competition between states created a demand for expanded state resources and hence continual economic growth. Economic growth, in turn, depended on mass literacy and easy communication, spurring policies to promote education and a common language -- which led directly to conflicts over language and communal opportunities.

Modern societies are premised on the egalitarian notion that in theory, at least, anyone can aspire to any economic position. But in practice, everyone does not have an equal likelihood of upward economic mobility, and not simply because individuals have different innate capabilities. For such advances depend in part on what economists call "cultural capital," the skills and behavioral patterns that help individuals and groups succeed. Groups with traditions of literacy and engagement in commerce tend to excel, for example, whereas those without such traditions tend to lag behind.

As they moved into cities and got more education during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ethnic groups with largely peasant backgrounds, such as the Czechs, the Poles, the Slovaks, and the Ukrainians found that key positions in the government and the economy were already occupied -- often by ethnic Armenians, Germans, Greeks, or Jews. Speakers of the same language came to share a sense that they belonged together and to define themselves in contrast to other communities. And eventually they came to demand a nation state of their own, in which they would be the masters, dominating politics, staffing the civil service, and controlling commerce.

Ethnonationalism had a psychological basis as well as an economic one. By creating a new and direct relationship between individuals and the government, the rise of the modern state weakened individuals' traditional bonds to intermediate social units, such as the family, the clan, the guild, and the church. And by spurring social and geographic mobility and a self-help mentality, the rise of market-based economies did the same. The result was an emotional vacuum that was often filled by new forms of identification, often along ethnic lines.

Ethnonationalist ideology called for a congruence between the state and the ethnically defined nation, with explosive results. As Lord Acton recognized in 1862, "By making the state and the nation commensurate with each other in theory, [nationalism] reduces practically to a subject condition all other nationalities that may be within the boundary. . . . According, therefore, to the degree of humanity and civilization in that dominant body which claims all the rights of the community, the inferior races are exterminated, or reduced to servitude, or outlawed, or put in a condition of dependence." And that is just what happened.

THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION

Nineteenth-century liberals, like many proponents of globalization today, believed that the spread of international commerce would lead people to recognize the mutual benefits that could come from peace and trade, both within polities and between them. Socialists agreed, although they believed that harmony would come only after the arrival of socialism. Yet that was not the course that twentieth-century history was destined to follow. The process of "making the state and the nation commensurate" took a variety of forms, from voluntary emigration (often motivated by governmental discrimination against minority ethnicities) to forced deportation (also known as "population transfer") to genocide. Although the term "ethnic cleansing" has come into English usage only recently, its verbal correlates in Czech, French, German, and Polish go back much further. Much of the history of twentieth-century Europe, in fact, has been a painful, drawn-out process of ethnic disaggregation.

Massive ethnic disaggregation began on Europe's frontiers. In the ethnically mixed Balkans, wars to expand the nation-states of Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia at the expense of the ailing Ottoman Empire were accompanied by ferocious interethnic violence. During the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, almost half a million people left their traditional homelands, either voluntarily or by force. Muslims left regions under the control of Bulgarians, Greeks, and Serbs; Bulgarians abandoned Greek-controlled areas of Macedonia; Greeks fled from regions of Macedonia ceded to Bulgaria and Serbia.

World War I led to the demise of the three great turn-of-the-century empires, unleashing an explosion of ethnonationalism in the process. In the Ottoman Empire, mass deportations and murder during the war took the lives of a million members of the local Armenian minority in an early attempt at ethnic cleansing, if not genocide. In 1919, the Greek government invaded the area that would become Turkey, seeking to carve out a "greater Greece" stretching all the way to Constantinople. Meeting with initial success, the Greek forces looted and burned villages in an effort to drive out the region's ethnic Turks. But Turkish forces eventually regrouped and pushed the Greek army back, engaging in their own ethnic cleansing against local Greeks along the way. Then the process of population transfers was formalized in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne: all ethnic Greeks were to go to Greece, all Greek Muslims to Turkey. In the end, Turkey expelled almost 1.5 million people, and Greece expelled almost 400,000.

Out of the breakup of the Hapsburg and Romanov empires emerged a multitude of new countries. Many conceived of themselves as ethnonational polities, in which the state existed to protect and promote the dominant ethnic group. Yet of central and eastern Europe's roughly 60 million people, 25 million continued to be part of ethnic minorities in the countries in which they lived. In most cases, the ethnic majority did not believe in trying to help minorities assimilate, nor were the minorities always eager to do so themselves. Nationalist governments openly discriminated in favor of the dominant community. Government activities were conducted solely in the language of the majority, and the civil service was reserved for those who spoke it.

In much of central and eastern Europe, Jews had long played an important role in trade and commerce. When they were given civil rights in the late nineteenth century, they tended to excel in professions requiring higher education, such as medicine and law, and soon Jews or people of Jewish descent made up almost half the doctors and lawyers in cities such as Budapest, Vienna, and Warsaw. By the 1930s, many governments adopted policies to try to check and reverse these advances, denying Jews credit and limiting their access to higher education. In other words, the National Socialists who came to power in Germany in 1933 and based their movement around a "Germanness" they defined in contrast to "Jewishness" were an extreme version of a more common ethnonationalist trend.

The politics of ethnonationalism took an even deadlier turn during World War II. The Nazi regime tried to reorder the ethnic map of the continent by force. Its most radical act was an attempt to rid Europe of Jews by killing them all -- an attempt that largely succeeded. The Nazis also used ethnic German minorities in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and elsewhere to enforce Nazi domination, and many of the regimes allied with Germany engaged in their own campaigns against internal ethnic enemies. The Romanian regime, for example, murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews on its own, without orders from Germany, and the government of Croatia murdered not only its Jews but hundreds of thousands of Serbs and Romany as well.

POSTWAR BUT NOT POSTNATIONAL

One might have expected that the Nazi regime's deadly policies and crushing defeat would mark the end of the ethnonationalist era. But in fact they set the stage for another massive round of ethnonational transformation. The political settlement in central Europe after World War I had been achieved primarily by moving borders to align them with populations. After World War II, it was the populations that moved instead. Millions of people were expelled from their homes and countries, with at least the tacit support of the victorious Allies.

Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin all concluded that the expulsion of ethnic Germans from non-German countries was a prerequisite to a stable postwar order. As Churchill put it in a speech to the British parliament in December 1944, "Expulsion is the method which, so far as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble. . . . A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed at the prospect of the disentanglement of population, nor am I alarmed by these large transferences." He cited the Treaty of Lausanne as a precedent, showing how even the leaders of liberal democracies had concluded that only radically illiberal measures would eliminate the causes of ethnonational aspirations and aggression.

Between 1944 and 1945, five million ethnic Germans from the eastern parts of the German Reich fled westward to escape the conquering Red Army, which was energetically raping and massacring its way to Berlin. Then, between 1945 and 1947, the new postliberation regimes in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia expelled another seven million Germans in response to their collaboration with the Nazis. Together, these measures constituted the largest forced population movement in European history, with hundreds of thousands of people dying along the way.

The handful of Jews who survived the war and returned to their homes in eastern Europe met with so much anti-Semitism that most chose to leave for good. About 220,000 of them made their way into the American-occupied zone of Germany, from which most eventually went to Israel or the United States. Jews thus essentially vanished from central and eastern Europe, which had been the center of Jewish life since the sixteenth century.

Millions of refugees from other ethnic groups were also evicted from their homes and resettled after the war. This was due partly to the fact that the borders of the Soviet Union had moved westward, into what had once been Poland, while the borders of Poland also moved westward, into what had once been Germany. To make populations correspond to the new borders, 1.5 million Poles living in areas that were now part of the Soviet Union were deported to Poland, and 500,000 ethnic Ukrainians who had been living in Poland were sent to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Yet another exchange of populations took place between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, with Slovaks transferred out of Hungary and Magyars sent away from Czechoslovakia. A smaller number of Magyars also moved to Hungary from Yugoslavia, with Serbs and Croats moving in the opposite direction.

As a result of this massive process of ethnic unmixing, the ethnonationalist ideal was largely realized: for the most part, each nation in Europe had its own state, and each state was made up almost exclusively of a single ethnic nationality. During the Cold War, the few exceptions to this rule included Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. But these countries' subsequent fate only demonstrated the ongoing vitality of ethnonationalism. After the fall of communism, East and West Germany were unified with remarkable rapidity, Czechoslovakia split peacefully into Czech and Slovak republics, and the Soviet Union broke apart into a variety of different national units. Since then, ethnic Russian minorities in many of the post-Soviet states have gradually immigrated to Russia, Magyars in Romania have moved to Hungary, and the few remaining ethnic Germans in Russia have largely gone to Germany. A million people of Jewish origin from the former Soviet Union have made their way to Israel. Yugoslavia saw the secession of Croatia and Slovenia and then descended into ethnonational wars over Bosnia and Kosovo.

The breakup of Yugoslavia was simply the last act of a long play. But the plot of that play -- the disaggregation of peoples and the triumph of ethnonationalism in modern Europe -- is rarely recognized, and so a story whose significance is comparable to the spread of democracy or capitalism remains largely unknown and unappreciated.

DECOLONIZATION AND AFTER

The effects of ethnonationalism, of course, have hardly been confined to Europe. For much of the developing world, decolonization has meant ethnic disaggregation through the exchange or expulsion of local minorities.

The end of the British Raj in 1947 brought about the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, along with an orgy of violence that took hundreds of thousands of lives. Fifteen million people became refugees, including Muslims who went to Pakistan and Hindus who went to India. Then, in 1971, Pakistan itself, originally unified on the basis of religion, dissolved into Urdu-speaking Pakistan and Bengali-speaking Bangladesh.

In the former British mandate of Palestine, a Jewish state was established in 1948 and was promptly greeted by the revolt of the indigenous Arab community and an invasion from the surrounding Arab states. In the war that resulted, regions that fell under Arab control were cleansed of their Jewish populations, and Arabs fled or were forced out of areas that came under Jewish control. Some 750,000 Arabs left, primarily for the surrounding Arab countries, and the remaining 150,000 constituted only about a sixth of the population of the new Jewish state. In the years afterward, nationalist-inspired violence against Jews in Arab countries propelled almost all of the more than 500,000 Jews there to leave their lands of origin and immigrate to Israel. Likewise, in 1962 the end of French control in Algeria led to the forced emigration of Algerians of European origin (the so-called pieds-noirs), most of whom immigrated to France. Shortly thereafter, ethnic minorities of Asian origin were forced out of postcolonial Uganda. The legacy of the colonial era, moreover, is hardly finished. When the European overseas empires dissolved, they left behind a patchwork of states whose boundaries often cut across ethnic patterns of settlement and whose internal populations were ethnically mixed. It is wishful thinking to suppose that these boundaries will be permanent. As societies in the former colonial world modernize, becoming more urban, literate, and politically mobilized, the forces that gave rise to ethnonationalism and ethnic disaggregation in Europe are apt to drive events there, too.

THE BALANCE SHEET

Analysts of ethnic disaggregation typically focus on its destructive effects, which is understandable given the direct human suffering it has often entailed. But such attitudes can yield a distorted perspective by overlooking the less obvious costs and also the important benefits that ethnic separation has brought.

Economists from Adam Smith onward, for example, have argued that the efficiencies of competitive markets tend to increase with the markets' size. The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire into smaller nation-states, each with its own barriers to trade, was thus economically irrational and contributed to the region's travails in the interwar period. Much of subsequent European history has involved attempts to overcome this and other economic fragmentation, culminating in the EU.

Ethnic disaggregation also seems to have deleterious effects on cultural vitality. Precisely because most of their citizens share a common cultural and linguistic heritage, the homogenized states of postwar Europe have tended to be more culturally insular than their demographically diverse predecessors. With few Jews in Europe and few Germans in Prague, that is, there are fewer Franz Kafkas.

Forced migrations generally penalize the expelling countries and reward the receiving ones. Expulsion is often driven by a majority group's resentment of a minority group's success, on the mistaken assumption that achievement is a zero-sum game. But countries that got rid of their Armenians, Germans, Greeks, Jews, and other successful minorities deprived themselves of some of their most talented citizens, who simply took their skills and knowledge elsewhere. And in many places, the triumph of ethnonational politics has meant the victory of traditionally rural groups over more urbanized ones, which possess just those skills desirable in an advanced industrial economy.

But if ethnonationalism has frequently led to tension and conflict, it has also proved to be a source of cohesion and stability. When French textbooks began with "Our ancestors the Gauls" or when Churchill spoke to wartime audiences of "this island race," they appealed to ethnonationalist sensibilities as a source of mutual trust and sacrifice. Liberal democracy and ethnic homogeneity are not only compatible; they can be complementary.

One could argue that Europe has been so harmonious since World War II not because of the failure of ethnic nationalism but because of its success, which removed some of the greatest sources of conflict both within and between countries. The fact that ethnic and state boundaries now largely coincide has meant that there are fewer disputes over borders or expatriate communities, leading to the most stable territorial configuration in European history.

These ethnically homogeneous polities have displayed a great deal of internal solidarity, moreover, facilitating government programs, including domestic transfer payments, of various kinds. When the Swedish Social Democrats were developing plans for Europe's most extensive welfare state during the interwar period, the political scientist Sheri Berman has noted, they conceived of and sold them as the construction of a folkhemmet, or "people's home."

Several decades of life in consolidated, ethnically homogeneous states may even have worked to sap ethnonationalism's own emotional power. Many Europeans are now prepared, and even eager, to participate in transnational frameworks such as the EU, in part because their perceived need for collective self-determination has largely been satisfied.

NEW ETHNIC MIXING

Along with the process of forced ethnic disaggregation over the last two centuries, there has also been a process of ethnic mixing brought about by voluntary emigration. The general pattern has been one of emigration from poor, stagnant areas to richer and more dynamic ones.

In Europe, this has meant primarily movement west and north, leading above all to France and the United Kingdom. This pattern has continued into the present: as a result of recent migration, for example, there are now half a million Poles in Great Britain and 200,000 in Ireland. Immigrants from one part of Europe who have moved to another and ended up staying there have tended to assimilate and, despite some grumbling about a supposed invasion of "Polish plumbers," have created few significant problems.

The most dramatic transformation of European ethnic balances in recent decades has come from the immigration of people of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern origin, and here the results have been mixed. Some of these groups have achieved remarkable success, such as the Indian Hindus who have come to the United Kingdom. But in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, on balance the educational and economic progress of Muslim immigrants has been more limited and their cultural alienation greater.

How much of the problem can be traced to discrimination, how much to the cultural patterns of the immigrants themselves, and how much to the policies of European governments is difficult to determine. But a number of factors, from official multiculturalism to generous welfare states to the ease of contact with ethnic homelands, seem to have made it possible to create ethnic islands where assimilation into the larger culture and economy is limited.

As a result, some of the traditional contours of European politics have been upended. The left, for example, has tended to embrace immigration in the name of egalitarianism and multiculturalism. But if there is indeed a link between ethnic homogeneity and a population's willingness to support generous income-redistribution programs, the encouragement of a more heterogeneous society may end up undermining the left's broader political agenda. And some of Europe's libertarian cultural propensities have already clashed with the cultural illiberalism of some of the new immigrant communities.

Should Muslim immigrants not assimilate and instead develop a strong communal identification along religious lines, one consequence might be a resurgence of traditional ethnonational identities in some states -- or the development of a new European identity defined partly in contradistinction to Islam (with the widespread resistance to the extension of full EU membership to Turkey being a possible harbinger of such a shift).

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

Since ethnonationalism is a direct consequence of key elements of modernization, it is likely to gain ground in societies undergoing such a process. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that it remains among the most vital -- and most disruptive -- forces in many parts of the contemporary world.

More or less subtle forms of ethnonationalism, for example, are ubiquitous in immigration policy around the globe. Many countries -- including Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Serbia, and Turkey -- provide automatic or rapid citizenship to the members of diasporas of their own dominant ethnic group, if desired. Chinese immigration law gives priority and benefits to overseas Chinese. Portugal and Spain have immigration policies that favor applicants from their former colonies in the New World. Still other states, such as Japan and Slovakia, provide official forms of identification to members of the dominant national ethnic group who are noncitizens that permit them to live and work in the country. Americans, accustomed by the U.S. government's official practices to regard differential treatment on the basis of ethnicity to be a violation of universalist norms, often consider such policies exceptional, if not abhorrent. Yet in a global context, it is the insistence on universalist criteria that seems provincial.

Increasing communal consciousness and shifting ethnic balances are bound to have a variety of consequences, both within and between states, in the years to come. As economic globalization brings more states into the global economy, for example, the first fruits of that process will often fall to those ethnic groups best positioned by history or culture to take advantage of the new opportunities for enrichment, deepening social cleavages rather than filling them in. Wealthier and higher-achieving regions might try to separate themselves from poorer and lower-achieving ones, and distinctive homogeneous areas might try to acquire sovereignty -- courses of action that might provoke violent responses from defenders of the status quo.

Of course, there are multiethnic societies in which ethnic consciousness remains weak, and even a more strongly developed sense of ethnicity may lead to political claims short of sovereignty. Sometimes, demands for ethnic autonomy or self-determination can be met within an existing state. The claims of the Catalans in Spain, the Flemish in Belgium, and the Scots in the United Kingdom have been met in this manner, at least for now. But such arrangements remain precarious and are subject to recurrent renegotiation. In the developing world, accordingly, where states are more recent creations and where the borders often cut across ethnic boundaries, there is likely to be further ethnic disaggregation and communal conflict. And as scholars such as Chaim Kaufmann have noted, once ethnic antagonism has crossed a certain threshold of violence, maintaining the rival groups within a single polity becomes far more difficult.

This unfortunate reality creates dilemmas for advocates of humanitarian intervention in such conflicts, because making and keeping peace between groups that have come to hate and fear one another is likely to require costly ongoing military missions rather than relatively cheap temporary ones. When communal violence escalates to ethnic cleansing, moreover, the return of large numbers of refugees to their place of origin after a cease-fire has been reached is often impractical and even undesirable, for it merely sets the stage for a further round of conflict down the road.

Partition may thus be the most humane lasting solution to such intense communal conflicts. It inevitably creates new flows of refugees, but at least it deals with the problem at issue. The challenge for the international community in such cases is to separate communities in the most humane manner possible: by aiding in transport, assuring citizenship rights in the new homeland, and providing financial aid for resettlement and economic absorption. The bill for all of this will be huge, but it will rarely be greater than the material costs of interjecting and maintaining a foreign military presence large enough to pacify the rival ethnic combatants or the moral cost of doing nothing.

Contemporary social scientists who write about nationalism tend to stress the contingent elements of group identity -- the extent to which national consciousness is culturally and politically manufactured by ideologists and politicians. They regularly invoke Benedict Anderson's concept of "imagined communities," as if demonstrating that nationalism is constructed will rob the concept of its power. It is true, of course, that ethnonational identity is never as natural or ineluctable as nationalists claim. Yet it would be a mistake to think that because nationalism is partly constructed it is therefore fragile or infinitely malleable. Ethnonationalism was not a chance detour in European history: it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit that are heightened by the process of modern state creation, it is a crucial source of both solidarity and enmity, and in one form or another, it will remain for many generations to come. One can only profit from facing it directly.

[Hugh]

Ethnic nationalism is the political philosophy we need to adopt for governing our peoples, and secession the means for our peoples to establish and maintain our countries.

On ethnic nationalism
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080301faessay87203/jerry-z-muller/us-and-them.html

On how diversity and multiculturalism simply don't work:

Putnam, Robert D. "E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century:
http://www.ohiocampuscompact.org/cffm/custom/File/Putnam%20E%20Pluribus%20Unum.pdf

On secession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_secession
http://www.secession.net/

We thus need :

1) to develop the movement as a network of nodes, in the form of foundations, thinktanks and organizations, guided and controlled not by an organisation, but by a philosophy which is naturally that we must secure the existence of our people, and a future for our children.

Different nodes would have different functions, and because they have no centre, cannot be destroyed.

These nodes would be established within various sectors of society.

They would act together by means of swarming.

Network, swarm, microstructure
http://multitudes.samizdat.net/Network-swarm-microstructure.html

Swarming and the Future of Conflict
http://www.rand.org/pubs/documented_briefings/2005/RAND_DB311.pdf

Communication strategies should be guided by studies such as this which call for establishing a global center for communication, and analyses the various requirements for succesful communication

2007 Summer Study: Strategic Communication
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2008-01-Strategic_Communication.pdf

Many other useful studies can be found here, no need to reinvent the wheel
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports.htm

2) journals and websites with names, layout and content that anyone can be seen reading or be published in without fearing loss of friends, family or careers that look and read like these

http://rand.org/
http://www.csis.org/
http://www.policyexperts.org/
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/psthink.html
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/lehman/guides/ttanks.html

3) to rid our Movement of any behaviour or appearance, as well as any sociopaths or social rejects, that brings WN into disrepute, and to look, sound and behave like leaders who the average White person on the street would want to entrust with the power to secure our existence and a future for White children

4) for each of us to start by becoming respected local leaders of our communities, whether it be by means of e.g. a ratepayers association, a non-profit organisation, a political party, a church etc, and it can start simply by having a website for your suburb, and then being guided by what this report warns of the dangers of such websites :)
http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/1861347723.pdf

How to attract the right sort of people to your area
http://www.freestateproject.org/

5) understand how High Culture affects the current situation in the world, and that culture is internationally accepted as a basis for separation, not race e.g. use terms such as Western instead of White
http://history.club.fatih.edu.tr/103%20Huntington%20Clash%20of%20Civilizations%20full%20text.htm

6) understand what culture is
The iceberg of Culture
http://www.doe.in.gov/lmmp/pdf/iceburgofculture.pdf

http://www.whitenationalism.com/

7) understand that the world is ruled predominantly by coastal or riverside cities, not countries and move to acquire control of strategic cities, which can then serve as the basis for city-states, which are the way most people in the times to come will be living, and where most Westerners already live
http://www.citiesalliance.org
http://www.metropolis.org
http://www.worldcitiesalliance.com/

8) organise our cities, and ourselves within the cities, as far as possible along the lines of the canton structure, which actually exists and has been working for several hundred years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantons_of_Switzerland

9) Use strategies and tactics that work

http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/
http://aeinstein.org/organizationsde07.html
http://www.canvasopedia.org/content/special/index.htm

10) understand that Peak Oil
http://www.peakoil.net/

Climate change
http://www.grist.org/pdf/AbruptClimateChange2003.pdf
http://www.ipcc.ch/

and demographics are about to change our entire world.
http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_tragedy_of_the_commons.html
http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/articles.html

We WN are the guardians of our race and culture, and we are all that is protecting our peoples from slavery, followed by extinction.

As Ronald Reagan once asked:
If not us, who?
If not now, when?

[Hugh]

Viral marketing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.[1] Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.[2] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.

It is claimed that a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like.[3] Viral marketing is based on this natural human behavior.

The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.

The term "viral marketing" is also sometimes used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns[4]--the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline [5] to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.

[Hugh]

Gradualism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradualism

Gradualism is the belief that changes occur , or ought to occur, slowly in the form of gradual steps (see also incrementalism)

Politics and society

In politics, the concept of gradualism is used to describe the belief that change ought to be modified in small, discrete increments rather than abrupt changes such as revolutions or uprisings. Gradualism is one of the defining features of political conservatism and reformism. Congressmen are pushed to agree to gradualism according to Machiavellian politics.

[Hugh]

Incrementalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incrementalism

Contents
1 Origin
2 Contrasts to other planning methodologies
3 Related concepts
4 Pros and Cons
5 Usage
6 Example
7 References
8 External links

Incrementalism is a method of working by adding to a project using many small (often unplanned) changes instead of a few (extensively planned) large jumps. Wikipedia, for example, illustrates the concept by building an encyclopedia bit by bit, continually adding to it. In a similar vein, it is said that Virgil wrote the Aeneid in an incremental process, averaging one line per day.[1] Logical incrementalism implies that the steps in the process are sensible.[2] In public policy, incrementalism refers to the method of change by which many small policy changes are enacted over time in order to create a larger broad based policy change. This was the theoretical policy of rationality developed by Lindblom to be seen as a middle way between the Rational Actor Model and bounded rationality as both long term goal driven policy rationality and satisficing were not seen as adequate.


Origin

Most people use incrementalism without ever needing a name for it because it is the natural and intuitive way to tackle everyday problems, such as making coffee or getting dressed. These actions normally don't require extensive planning and problems can be dealt with one at a time as they arise.

Even in processes that involve more extensive planning, incrementalism is often an important tactic for dealing reactively with small details. For example, one might plan a route for a driving trip on a map, but one would not typically plan in advance where to change lanes or how long to stop at each streetlight.

Contrasts to other planning methodologies

In large projects, there is normally a need to allocate time to plan the project in order to avoid what is termed "fire fighting". In contrast to other systems of planning such as top down, bottom up and so on, incrementalism states that you should concentrate on dealing with the immediate problems as they arrive and avoiding trying to create an overall strategic plan.

The antithesis of incrementalism is that work must be accomplished in one single push rather than a process of continuous improvement. All work must be planned, only presented when complete and work in progress must be hidden. Revolutionism would be an example of this approach.

Related concepts

Incrementalism is a planning methodology normally found where a large strategic plan is either unnecessary or has failed to develop and for that reason it is often just called "muddling through".[3] Incrementalism is the antithesis of intrusive central planning, which can create rigid work systems unable to deal with the actual problems faced at the grassroots level.[4] However without a central planning framework incremental working is difficult to support within structured systems and therefore requires a degree of self reliance, skills and experience of those dealing with the problems such as is found in autonomous work groups.

Pros and Cons

The advantages of incrementalism over other formal systems is that no time is wasted planing for outcomes which may not occur. Disadvantages are that time may be wasted dealing with the immediate problems and no overall strategy is developed.

Incrementalism in the study of rationality can be seen as a stealthy way to bring about radical changes that were not initially wanted: a slippery slope. Compare, for example, the development of the European Union.

Usage

Incrementalism is commonly employed in engineering, software design and industry. Whereas it is often criticized as "fire fighting", the progressive improvement of product designs characteristic, e.g., of Japanese engineering can create steadily improving product performance, which in certain circumstances outperforms more orthodox planning systems.

Another example would be in small changes that makes way for a bigger overall change to get past unnoticed. A series of small steps toward an agenda would be less likely to be questioned then a large and swift change. An example could be the rise of gas prices, the company would only rise the price by a few cents every day, instead of a large change to a target price overnight. More people would notice and dispute a dramatic, 100% increase overnight, while a 100% increase over a span of a week would less likely be even noticed, let alone argued. This can be applied in many different ways, such as, economics, politics, a person's appearance, or laws.

Example

In the 1970s, many countries decided to invest in wind energy. Denmark, a small country of around 5 million people, became a world leader in this technology using an incremental approach[5] whilst more formal design processes in the US, Germany and the United Kingdom failed to develop competitive machines. The reason for the difference of approach was that the Danish wind industry developed from an agricultural base whilst the American and UK wind industries were based on hi-tech aerospace companies with significant university involvement[4]. While the Danes built better and better windmills using an incremental approach, those using formal planning techniques believed that they could easily design a superior windmill straight away.

In practice, however, windmill design is not very complicated and the biggest problem is the tradeoff between cost and reliability. Although the UK and the U.S.A. designs were technically superior, the lack of experience in the field meant that their machines were less reliable in the field. In contrast, the heavy agricultural windmills produced by the Danes just kept turning, and by 2000 the top three windmill manufacturers in the world were Danish.[4]

References
^ http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-840X(189807)1%3A12%3A6%3C306%3AHROCVV%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2
^ Quinn, J.B., 1978. Strategic change: logical incrementalism. Sloan Management Review 20 (1), 7–21.
^ Overseas Development Institute Research and Policy in Development Group; Fundamental decisions vs disjointed incrementalism ('muddling through') (http://www.odi.org.uk/RAPID/Tools/Theory/Theories_muddlethrough.html)
^ a b c Raghu Garuda & Peter Karnøe; "Bricolage versus breakthrough: distributed and embedded agency in technology entrepreneurship", Research Policy 32 (2003) 277–300
^ F. Borum and PH Kristiansen (Copenhagen, 1989); "Industrial Innovation and Incremental Learning: The Case of Danish Wind Technology from 1975 to 1988

External links
Incrementalism (http://www.geocities.com/~profwork/pp/formulate/inc.html)
The incremental Approach (http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/incremental_approach.htm)
Knowledge base essay: Incrementalism (http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/incrementalism/)
Incrementalism (incrementalist decision-making) (http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/incrementalism)

[Hugh]

Network-centric organization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-centric_organization

Contents
1 Knowledge Work
2 Hybrid Enterprises
3 Sensible Organization
4 Social Technologies
5 Power shift in traditional organizations
6 Links to Network Centric Warfare
7 See also
8 References

A network-centric organization is a network governance pattern emerging in many progressive 21st century enterprises. This implies new ways of working, with consequences for the enterprise’s infrastructure, processes, people and culture. With a network-centric configuration, knowledge workers are able to create and leverage information to increase competitive advantage through the collaboration of small and agile self-directed teams. For this, the organizational culture needs to change from one solely determined by a command and control, rule-based hierarchy to a hybrid structure which supports loosely-coupled, self-managed teams to make cooperative decisions through the sharing of knowledge. Socially-constructed, collective knowledge, at the small team level, is recognized as the predominant source of learning, creativity and innovation even in large highly structured business enterprises.

A network-centric organization is a sensible response to a complex environment. The business climate of the new millennium is characterized by profound and continuous changes due to globalization, exponential leaps in technological capabilities, and other market forces. Rapid developments of ICT are driving and supporting the change from the industrial to the information age. In this world of rapid change and uncertainty, organizations need to continually renew, reinvent and reinvigorate themselves in order to respond creatively. The network-centric approach aims to tap into the hidden resources of knowledge workers supported and enabled by ICT, in particular the social technologies associated with Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0. Essentially though, a network-centric organization is more about people and culture than technology. [1]



Knowledge Work

There is a synthesis of thinking, learning and doing at the core of creative human activity that underpins the concept of knowledge work. Knowledge workers collaborate on tasks that are cognitively demanding, involving complex technical judgements, a high degree of professional and individual expertise and experience. The knowledge worker is astutely aware, not only of the means and purpose of their work, but also its political and social dimensions. Much of this knowledge is tacit and shared among the work group becoming embedded in its culture. There is a broad expanse of uncharted territory between the real knowledge work that occurs in an organization and the formal organizational structure and espoused practices. The concentration on formal organizational programs aimed at the individual workers ignored the real nature of work practices that reside in a space between the organization and individual perspectives. This space often remain hidden from the organizational landscape, unappreciated and undervalued. Revealing the nature of this hidden space holds the key to understanding knowledge work and is critical to successful organizational outcomes and learning.

Hybrid Enterprises

Many enterprises are hybrids of hierarchical bureaucracies and dispersed network-centric configurations where competition and cooperation coexist. Enterprises which have complex hybrid structures consisting of hierarchies and networks are more like eco-systems than machines. The latter are likely to be exploitative and bureaucratic while the former can be networked and innovative. This reflects the tension between the natural tendency for disorder to increase while humans strive to impose order by developing ever more complex rigid structures and systems. It is quite a natural state of affairs that organizations can be part mechanistic and part organic with continual transformations among these forms.

Sensible Organization

A complex environment presents an enterprise with too large a range and diversity of inputs to comprehend logically so the sensible response is not to try. Attempts to deal with complexity are unsuccessful if they aim to either simplify or assert control over complex situations. It makes more sense to maintain and support the natural creative energies of complex environments, encouraging the emergence of innovative new forms of working. Sensible enterprises will become agile, flexible and adaptable by incorporating more creativity and diversity into their structures, processes and human resources. The informality, interactivity and adaptability of small teams of people retains a space for what we traditionally call ‘common sense’ for both understanding and action amid the accountability and constraints of the formal enterprise. Sensible managers will relinquish some of their traditional control to knowledge workers in small self directed teams.

Social Technologies

At the current time, a new civil digital culture has taken hold, in which so-called ‘social’ and/or ‘conversational’ technologies or social software are providing unprecedented opportunities for everyday user activities. The term Web 2.0 has entered the vocabulary to reflect the ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving social web applications such as email, discussion forums, chatrooms, Weblogs and Wikis to end users. Constructivist learning theorists (Vygotsky, 1978; [2] Leidner & Jarvenpaa, 1995 [3] explained that the process of expressing knowledge aids its creation and conversations benefits the refinement of knowledge. Cheung et al. (2005) [4] maintains that conversational knowledge management fulfils this purpose because conversations, e.g. questions and answers, become the source of relevant knowledge. Social technologies facilitate processes where knowledge creation and storage is carried out through a discussion forum where participants contribute to the discussion with questions and answers, or through a Weblog which is typified by a process of storytelling or through a Wiki using collaborative writing (Hasan and Pfaff 2006). [5] In the corporate setting, the term Enterprise 2.0 is emerging to reflect the use of freeform social software within companies to support work units and the individual knowledge worker. Gordon and Ganesan (2005) [6] advocates a different vision for knowledge management systems to one that is specifically targeted to the capture and use of the stories told in communities and organizations in the context of normal, spoken conversations. Conversation and other types of human-human communication must be exploited in today’s knowledge management systems so as harness the value of conversation in packaging and transmitting tacit knowledge. The attraction of these social technologies is their low cost, intuitive functionality and connectivity. Social technologies support new forms of network-centric interaction and activity between people, allowing and enhancing informal access to create and distribute information. These technologies empower ordinary people to have a global presence for business, political and social purposes. The new social technologies at the focus of this project are tools of a rising digital democracy.

Power shift in traditional organizations

Traditional organizations that favor a rigid hierarchical structure and ego-centric methods still employ the outmoded concept where the decision-making authority lies solely in the domain of its corporate headquarters. Changes resulting from developments in ICT and the growth of the Internet, have made it increasingly difficult to provide a platform for effective and efficient management and operations. As observed by De Vulpian (2005), [7] “we are in the process of moving from a pyramidal, hierarchical society to a single-story society where heterarchical relationships dominate”.

There is a tension between ego-centric thinking and network-centric thinking – the tension between the institutional power that emanates from an organization and the transactional power that inheres in its members' daily interactions. Progressive organizations are tending to refocus on supporting teams in community-style networks. There is a growing realization that if "decisions are allowed to move out of the corporate headquarters to individual business units, business units will in turn distribute power and decision-making to self-managed teams and profit centers (Allee 2003).” [8] This is the basis of the concept of knowledge work where workers have control over their own activities through knowledge acquired in the course of both training and experience.

Links to Network Centric Warfare

Network-centric warfare is a simple concept that involves the linkage of engagement systems to sensors through networks and the sharing of information between force elements. The early development of the concept evolved by connecting information systems and creating software applications that allow people to use the available data. McKenna, Moon, Davis and Warne (2006) [9] emphasise on the human dimension of NCW which is based on the idea that information is only useful if it allows people to act more effectively.

See also
Commons-based peer production
Complexity theory
Network governance
Organizational learning
Self-organization
Sensemaking
Teamwork
Value network
Value network analysis

References
^ Hasan, H. & Pousti, H. 2006. "SNA as an Attractor in Emergent Networks of Research Groups". (http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1290&context=commpapers)
^ Vygotsky, L.1978. "Mind in Society", Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
^ Leidner, D. & Jarvenpaa, S.1995. “The use of information technology to enhance management school education: A theoretical view”, MIS Quarterly, Vol.19, No.3, pp.265-291.
^ Cheung, K. S. K., Lee, F. S. L., Ip, R. K. F., & Wagner, C. “The Development of Successful On-line Communities”, International Journal of the Computer, the Internet and Management, vol.13, no.1, 2005, 71-89.
^ Hasan, H. and Pfaff, C.C. 2006. "Emergent Conversational Technologies that are Democratising Information Systems in Organisations: the case of the corporate Wiki", Proceedings of the Information Systems Foundations (ISF): Theory, Representation and Reality Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, 27-28 September 2006. (http://ro.uow.edu.au/commpapers/284/)
^ Gordon,A.E. and Ganesan,K. 2005. "Automated Story Capture From Conversational Speech", K-CAP’05, October 2-5, 2005, Banff, Canada.
^ De Vulpian, A. 2005. "Listening to Ordinary People", keynote address at the Society of Organizational Learning Conference, Vienna, September. (http://www.knooppuntinnovatie.nl/documenten/Vulpian,%20listening%20to%20ordinary%20people.pdf)
^ Allee, V. 2003 "The Future of Knowledge: Increasing Prosperity through Value Networks", Butterworth-Heinemann, USA. (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=qw4NhpbogfAC&dq=&pg=PP1&ots=V0o5Ya7zs-&sig=bmvxnNGSydGjQh91T9xg3zX0d9I&prev=http://www.google.com.au/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3DAllee%252C%2BV.%2B(2003)%2BThe%2BFuture%2Bof%2BKnowledge%253A%2BIncreasing%2BProsperity%2Bthrough%2BValue%2BNetworks%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch%26meta%3D&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title)
^ McKenna, T., Moon, T., Davis, R. and Warne, L. 2006. "Science and Technology for Australian Network-Centric Warfare: Function, Form and Fit", Australian Defence Force Journal. (http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/publications/4595)

[Hugh]

Brainstorming
Generating many radical and useful ideas

http://www.mindtools.com/brainstm.html

Brainstorming is a useful and popular tool that you can use to develop highly creative solutions to a problem.

It is particularly helpful when you need to break out of stale, established patterns of thinking, so that you can develop new ways of looking at things. This can be when you need to develop new opportunities, where you want to improve the service that you offer, or when existing approaches just aren't giving you the results you want.

Used with your team, it helps you bring the experience of all team members into play during problem solving.

This increases the richness of solutions explored (meaning that you can find better solutions to the problems you face, and make better decisions.) It can also help you get buy in from team members for the solution chosen - after all, they have helped create that solution.
Brainstorming and Lateral Thinking

Brainstorming is a lateral thinking process. It asks that people come up with ideas and thoughts that seem at first to be a bit shocking or crazy. You can then change and improve them into ideas that are useful, and often stunningly original.

During brainstorming sessions there should therefore be no criticism of ideas: You are trying to open up possibilities and break down wrong assumptions about the limits of the problem. Judgments and analysis at this stage will stunt idea generation.

Ideas should only be evaluated at the end of the brainstorming session - you can then explore solutions further using conventional approaches.

If your ideas begin to dry up, you can 'seed' the session with, for example, a random word (see Random Input).
Individual Brainstorming

When you brainstorm on your own you will tend to produce a wider range of ideas than with group brainstorming - you do not have to worry about other people's egos or opinions, and can therefore be more freely creative. You may not, however, develop ideas as effectively as you do not have the experience of a group to help you.

When Brainstorming on your own, it can be helpful to use Mind Maps to arrange and develop ideas.
Group Brainstorming

Group brainstorming can be very effective as it uses the experience and creativity of all members of the group. When individual members reach their limit on an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage. Therefore, group brainstorming tends to develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming.

Brainstorming in a group can be risky for individuals. Valuable but strange suggestions may appear stupid at first sight. Because of such, you need to chair sessions tightly so that uncreative people do not crush these ideas and leave group members feeling humiliated.
How to Use the Tool:

To run a group brainstorming session effectively, do the following:

* Define the problem you want solved clearly, and lay out any criteria to be met;
* Keep the session focused on the problem;
* Ensure that no one criticizes or evaluates ideas during the session. Criticism introduces an element of risk for group members when putting forward an idea. This stifles creativity and cripples the free running nature of a good brainstorming session;
* Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among members of the group. Try to get everyone to contribute and develop ideas, including the quietest members of the group;
* Let people have fun brainstorming. Encourage them to come up with as many ideas as possible, from solidly practical ones to wildly impractical ones. Welcome creativity;
* Ensure that no train of thought is followed for too long;
* Encourage people to develop other people's ideas, or to use other ideas to create new ones; and
* Appoint one person to note down ideas that come out of the session. A good way of doing this is to use a flip chart. This should be studied and evaluated after the session.

Where possible, participants in the brainstorming process should come from as wide a range of disciplines as possible. This brings a broad range of experience to the session and helps to make it more creative.

And again, it's worth exploring the use of computer-based tools for group brainstorming. As long as you're reasonably quick with keyboard and mouse, these significantly improve the quality and effectiveness of a brainstorming session.
Key Points:

Brainstorming is a great way of generating radical ideas. During the brainstorming process there is no criticism of ideas, as free rein is given to people's creativity (criticism and judgment cramp creativity.)

This often makes group brainstorming sessions enjoyable experiences, which are great for bringing team members together.

Individual brainstorming is best for generating many ideas, but tends to be less effective at developing them. Group brainstorming tends to develop fewer ideas, but takes each idea further. Group brainstorming needs formal rules for it to work smoothly.

[Hugh]

Root Cause Analysis
Tracing a Problem to Its Origins

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_80.htm

In medicine, it's easy to understand the difference between treating symptoms and curing a medical condition. Sure, when you're in pain because you've broken your wrist, you WANT to have your symptoms treated – now! However, taking painkillers won't heal your wrist, and true healing is needed before the symptoms can disappear for good.

But when you have a problem at work, how do you approach it? Do you jump in and start treating the symptoms? Or do you stop to consider whether there's actually a deeper problem that needs your attention?

If you only fix the symptoms – what you see on the surface – the problem will almost certainly happen again. which will lead you to fix it, again, and again, and again.

If, instead, you look deeper to figure out why the problem is occurring, you can fix the underlying systems and processes that cause the problem.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a popular and often-used technique that helps people answer the question of why the problem occurred in the first place.

Root Cause Analysis seeks to identify the origin of a problem. It uses a specific set of steps, with associated tools, to find the primary cause of the problem, so that you can:

1. Determine what happened.
2. Determine why it happened.
3. Figure out what to do to reduce the likelihood that it will happen again.

RCA assumes that systems and events are interrelated. An action in one area triggers an action in another, and another, and so on. By tracing back these actions, you can discover where the problem started and how it grew into the symptom you're now facing.

You'll usually find three basic types of causes:

1. Physical causes - Tangible, material items failed in some way (for example, a car's brakes stopped working).

2. Human causes - People did something wrong. or did not doing something that was needed. Human causes typically lead to physical causes (for example, no one filled the brake fluid, which led to the brakes failing).

3. Organizational causes - A system, process, or policy that people use to make decisions or do their work is faulty (for example, no one person was responsible for vehicle maintenance, and everyone assumed someone else had filled the brake fluid).

Root Cause Analysis looks at all three types of causes. It involves investigating the patterns of negative effects, finding hidden flaws in the system, and discovering specific actions that contributed to the problem. This often means that RCA reveals more than one root cause.

You can apply Root Cause Analysis to almost any situation. Determining how far to go in your investigation requires good judgment and common sense. Theoretically, you could continue to trace root causes back to the Stone Age, but the effort would serve no useful purpose. Be careful to understand when you've found a significant cause that can, in fact, be changed.
The Root Cause Analysis Process

Root Cause Analysis has five identifiable steps.

Step One: Define the Problem

* What do you see happening?
* What are the specific symptoms?

Step Two: Collect Data

* What proof do you have that the problem exists?
* How long has the problem existed?
* What is the impact of the problem?

You need to analyze a situation fully before you can move on to look at factors that contributed to the problem. To maximize the effectiveness of your Root Cause Analysis, get together everyone – experts and front line staff – who understands the situation. People who are most familiar with the problem can help lead you to a better understanding of the issues.

A helpful tool at this stage is CATWOE. With this process, you look at the same situation from different perspectives: the Customers, the people (Actors) who implement the solutions, the Transformation process that's affected, the World view, the process Owner, and Environmental constraints.

Step Three: Identify Possible Causal Factors

* What sequence of events leads to the problem?
* What conditions allow the problem to occur?
* What other problems surround the occurrence of the central problem?

During this stage, identify as many causal factors as possible. Too often, people identify one or two factors and then stop, but that's not sufficient. With RCA, you don't want to simply treat the most obvious causes - you want to dig deeper.

Use these tools to help identify causal factors:

* Appreciation - Use the facts and ask "So what?" to determine all the possible consequences of a fact.
* 5 Whys - Ask "Why?" until you get to the root of the problem.
* Drill Down - Break down a problem into small, detailed parts to better understand the big picture.
* Cause and Effect Diagrams - Create a chart of all of the possible causal factors, to see where the trouble may have begun.

Step Four: Identify the Root Cause(s)

* Why does the causal factor exist?
* What is the real reason the problem occurred?

Use the same tools you used to identify the causal factors (in Step Three) to look at the roots of each factor. These tools are designed to encourage you to dig deeper at each level of cause and effect.

Step Five: Recommend and Implement Solutions

* What can you do to prevent the problem from happening again?
* How will the solution be implemented?
* Who will be responsible for it?
* What are the risks of implementing the solution?

Analyze your cause-and-effect process, and identify the changes needed for various systems. It's also important that you plan ahead to predict the effects of your solution. This way, you can spot potential failures before they happen.

One way of doing this is to use Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). This tool builds on the idea of risk analysis to identify points where a solution could fail. FMEA is also a great system to implement across your organization; the more systems and processes that use FMEA at the start, the less likely you are to have problems that need Root Cause Analysis in the future.

Impact Analysis is another useful tool here. This helps you explore possible positive and negative consequences of a change on different parts of a system or organization.

Another great strategy to adopt is Kaizen, or continuous improvement. This is the idea that continual small changes create better systems overall. Kaizen also emphasizes that the people closest to a process should identify places for improvement. Again, with kaizen alive and well in your company, the root causes of problems can be identified and resolved quickly and effectively.
Key Points

Root Cause Analysis is a useful process for understanding and solving a problem.

Figure out what negative events are occurring. Then, look at the complex systems around those problems, and identify key points of failure. Finally, determine solutions to address those key points, or root causes.

You can use many tools to support your Root Cause Analysis process. Cause and Effect Diagrams and 5 Whys are integral to the process itself, while FMEA and Kaizen help minimize the need for Root Cause Analysis in the future.

As an analytical tool, Root Cause Analysis is an essential way to perform a comprehensive, system-wide review of significant problems as well as the events and factors leading to them.

[Hugh]

Six Thinking Hats
Looking at a Decision from All Points of View

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_07.htm

'Six Thinking Hats' is a powerful technique that helps you look at important decisions from a number of different perspectives. It helps you make better decisions by pushing you to move outside your habitual ways of thinking. As such, it helps you understand the full complexity of the decision, and spot issues and opportunities to which you might otherwise be blind.

Many successful people think from a very rational, positive viewpoint. This is part of the reason that they are successful. Often, though, they may fail to look at a problem from an emotional, intuitive, creative or negative viewpoint. This can mean that they underestimate resistance to change, fail to make creative leaps, and do not make essential contingency plans.

Similarly, pessimists may be excessively defensive, and people used to a very logical approach to problem solving may fail to engage their creativity or listen to their intuition.

If you look at a problem with the 'Six Thinking Hats' technique, then you will solve it using all approaches. Your decisions and plans will mix ambition, skill in execution, sensitivity, creativity and good contingency planning.

This tool was created by Edward de Bono in his book 6 Thinking Hats.
How to Use the Tool:

To use Six Thinking Hats to improve the quality of your decision-making, look at the decision 'wearing' each of the thinking hats in turn.

Each 'Thinking Hat' is a different style of thinking. These are explained below:

*

White Hat:
With this thinking hat, you focus on the data available. Look at the information you have, and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your knowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of them.

This is where you analyze past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical data.
*

Red Hat:
'Wearing' the red hat, you look at the decision using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. Also try to think how other people will react emotionally, and try to understand the intuitive responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning.
* Black Hat:
When using black hat thinking, look at things pessimistically, cautiously and defensively. Try to see why ideas and approaches might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan or course of action. It allows you to eliminate them, alter your approach, or prepare contingency plans to counter problems that arise.

Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans 'tougher' and more resilient. It can also help you to spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course of action. Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as many successful people get so used to thinking positively that often they cannot see problems in advance, leaving them under-prepared for difficulties.
* Yellow Hat:
The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it, and spot the opportunities that arise from it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult.

*

Green Hat:
The Green Hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here.
* Blue Hat:
The Blue Hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings. When running into difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking, and so on.

You can use Six Thinking Hats in meetings or on your own. In meetings it has the benefit of defusing the disagreements that can happen when people with different thinking styles discuss the same problem.

A variant of this technique is to look at problems from the point of view of different professionals (e.g. doctors, architects, sales directors) or different customers.
Example:

The directors of a property company are looking at whether they should construct a new office building. The economy is doing well, and the amount of vacant office space is reducing sharply. As part of their decision they decide to use the 6 Thinking Hats technique during a planning meeting.

Looking at the problem with the White Hat, they analyze the data they have. They examine the trend in vacant office space, which shows a sharp reduction. They anticipate that by the time the office block would be completed, that there will be a severe shortage of office space. Current government projections show steady economic growth for at least the construction period.

With Red Hat thinking, some of the directors think the proposed building looks quite ugly. While it would be highly cost-effective, they worry that people would not like to work in it.

When they think with the Black Hat, they worry that government projections may be wrong. The economy may be about to enter a 'cyclical downturn', in which case the office building may be empty for a long time.

If the building is not attractive, then companies will choose to work in another better-looking building at the same rent.

With the Yellow Hat, however, if the economy holds up and their projections are correct, the company stands to make a great deal of money.

If they are lucky, maybe they could sell the building before the next downturn, or rent to tenants on long-term leases that will last through any recession.

With Green Hat thinking they consider whether they should change the design to make the building more pleasant. Perhaps they could build prestige offices that people would want to rent in any economic climate. Alternatively, maybe they should invest the money in the short term to buy up property at a low cost when a recession comes.

The Blue Hat has been used by the meeting's Chair to move between the different thinking styles. He or she may have needed to keep other members of the team from switching styles, or from criticizing other peoples' points.

It is well worth reading Edward de Bono's book 6 Thinking Hats for more information on this technique.
Key points:

Six Thinking Hats is a good technique for looking at the effects of a decision from a number of different points of view.

It allows necessary emotion and skepticism to be brought into what would otherwise be purely rational decisions. It opens up the opportunity for creativity within Decision Making. The technique also helps, for example, persistently pessimistic people to be positive and creative.

Plans developed using the '6 Thinking Hats' technique will be sounder and more resilient than would otherwise be the case. It may also help you to avoid public relations mistakes, and spot good reasons not to follow a course of action, before you have committed to it.

[Charles Martel]

Using some of the listed ideas as presupposition to move forward, the best method is always the one least thought of.

Why not generate covert groups in the style of the weisenthal center (as it went after ex-nazis?) to remove the rogue elements in our government? Is that not a better solution? :confused:

The cry of the poor jew - "I'm praying to you....I can't die like a dumb animal! Like a dumb animal!....Look in your heart...." (-from "Miller's Crossing").

The world's toe-biter needs a real world awakening. The time has come.

We could have thousands at our arsenal if we position our message right. The demise of the jew SHOULD be our primary goal! The jew is the cause of all the perversion in our society, the center of all derision, the rodent-king of our demise! Rise up people! Don't serve this parasite!

[Hugh]

Isaiah's Job by Albert Jay Nock

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/nock3b.html

One evening last autumn, I sat long hours with a European acquaintance while he expounded a political-economic doctrine which seemed sound as a nut and in which I could find no defect. At the end, he said with great earnestness: "I have a mission to the masses. I feel that I am called to get the ear of the people. I shall devote the rest of my life to spreading my doctrine far and wide among the population. What do you think?"

An embarrassing question in any case, and doubly so under the circumstances, because my acquaintance is a very learned man, one of the three or four really first-class minds that Europe produced in his generation; and naturally I, as one of the unlearned, was inclined to regard his lightest word with reverence amounting to awe. Still, I reflected, even the greatest mind can not possibly know everything, and I was pretty sure he had not had my opportunities for observing the masses of mankind, and that therefore I probably knew them better than he did. So I mustered courage to say that he had no such mission and would do well to get the idea out of his head at once; he would find that the masses would not care two pins for his doctrine, and still less for himself, since in such circumstances the popular favourite is generally some Barabbas. I even went so far as to say (he is a Jew) that his idea seemed to show that he was not very well up on his own native literature. He smiled at my jest, and asked what I meant by it; and I referred him to the story of the prophet Isaiah.

It occurred to me then that this story is much worth recalling just now when so many wise men and soothsayers appear to be burdened with a message to the masses. Dr. Townsend has a message, Father Coughlin has one, Mr. Upton Sinclair, Mr. Lippmann, Mr. Chase and the planned economy brethren, Mr. Tugwell and the New Dealers, Mr. Smith and Liberty Leaguers – the list is endless. I can not remember a time when so many energumens were so variously proclaiming the Word to the multitude and telling them what they must do to be saved. This being so, it occurred to me, as I say, that the story of Isaiah might have something in it to steady and compose the human spirit until this tyranny of windiness is overpast. I shall paraphrase the story in our common speech, since it has to be pieced out from various sources; and inasmuch as respectable scholars have thought fit to put out a whole new version of the Bible in the American vernacular, I shall take shelter behind them, if need be, against the charge of dealing irreverently with the Sacred Scriptures.

The prophet's career began at the end of King Uzziah's reign, say about 740 B.C. This reign was uncommonly long, almost half a century, and apparently prosperous. It was one of those prosperous reigns, however – like the reign of Marcus Aurelius at Rome, or the administration of Eubulus at Athens, or of Mr. Coolidge at Washington – where at the end the prosperity suddenly peters out and things go by the board with a resounding crash.

In the year of Uzziah's death, the Lord commissioned the prophet to go out and warn the people of the wrath to come. "Tell them what a worthless lot they are." He said, "Tell them what is wrong, and why and what is going to happen unless they have a change of heart and straighten up. Don't mince matters. Make it clear that they are positively down to their last chance. Give it to them good and strong and keep on giving it to them. I suppose perhaps I ought to tell you," He added, "that it won't do any good. The official class and their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you and the masses will not even listen. They will all keep on in their own ways until they carry everything down to destruction, and you will probably be lucky if you get out with your life."

Isaiah had been very willing to take on the job – in fact, he had asked for it – but the prospect put a new face on the situation. It raised the obvious question: Why, if all that were so – if the enterprise were to be a failure from the start – was there any sense in starting it? "Ah," the Lord said, "you do not get the point. There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it."

II

Apparently, then, if the Lord’s word is good for anything – I do not offer any opinion about that, – the only element in Judean society that was particularly worth bothering about was the Remnant. Isaiah seems finally to have got it through his head that this was the case; that nothing was to be expected from the masses, but that if anything substantial were ever to be done in Judea, the Remnant would have to do it. This is a very striking and suggestive idea; but before going on to explore it, we need to be quite clear about our terms. What do we mean by the masses, and what by the Remnant?

As the word masses is commonly used, it suggests agglomerations of poor and underprivileged people, labouring people, proletarians, and it means nothing like that; it means simply the majority. The mass-man is one who has neither the force of intellect to apprehend the principles issuing in what we know as the humane life, nor the force of character to adhere to those principles steadily and strictly as laws of conduct; and because such people make up the great and overwhelming majority of mankind, they are called collectively the masses. The line of differentiation between the masses and the Remnant is set invariably by quality, not by circumstance. The Remnant are those who by force of intellect are able to apprehend these principles, and by force of character are able, at least measurably, to cleave to them. The masses are those who are unable to do either.

The picture which Isaiah presents of the Judean masses is most unfavorable. In his view, the mass-man – be he high or be he lowly, rich or poor, prince or pauper – gets off very badly. He appears as not only weak-minded and weak-willed, but as by consequence knavish, arrogant, grasping, dissipated, unprincipled, unscrupulous. The mass-woman also gets off badly, as sharing all the mass-man’s untoward qualities, and contributing a few of her own in the way of vanity and laziness, extravagance and foible. The list of luxury-products that she patronized is interesting; it calls to mind the women’s page of a Sunday newspaper in 1928, or the display set forth in one of our professedly "smart" periodicals. In another place, Isaiah even recalls the affectations that we used to know by the name "flapper gait" and the "debutante slouch." It may be fair to discount Isaiah’s vivacity a little for prophetic fervour; after all, since his real job was not to convert the masses but to brace and reassure the Remnant, he probably felt that he might lay it on indiscriminately and as thick as he liked – in fact, that he was expected to do so. But even so, the Judean mass-man must have been a most objectionable individual, and the mass-woman utterly odious.

If the modern spirit, whatever that may be, is disinclined towards taking the Lord’s word at its face value (as I hear is the case), we may observe that Isaiah’s testimony to the character of the masses has strong collateral support from respectable Gentile authority. Plato lived into the administration of Eubulus, when Athens was at the peak of its jazz-and-paper era, and he speaks of the Athenian masses with all Isaiah’s fervency, even comparing them to a herd of ravenous wild beasts. Curiously, too, he applies Isaiah’s own word remnant to the worthier portion of Athenian society; "there is but a very small remnant," he says, of those who possess a saving force of intellect and force of character – too small, preciously as to Judea, to be of any avail against the ignorant and vicious preponderance of the masses.

But Isaiah was a preacher and Plato a philosopher; and we tend to regard preachers and philosophers rather as passive observers of the drama of life than as active participants. Hence in a matter of this kind their judgment might be suspected of being a little uncompromising, a little acrid, or as the French say, saugrenu. We may therefore bring forward another witness who was preeminently a man of affairs, and whose judgment can not lie under this suspicion. Marcus Aurelius was ruler of the greatest of empires, and in that capacity he not only had the Roman mass-man under observation, but he had him on his hands twenty-four hours a day for eighteen years. What he did not know about him was not worth knowing and what he thought of him is abundantly attested on almost every page of the little book of jottings which he scribbled offhand from day to day, and which he meant for no eye but his own ever to see.

This view of the masses is the one that we find prevailing at large among the ancient authorities whose writings have come down to us. In the eighteenth century, however, certain European philosophers spread the notion that the mass-man, in his natural state, is not at all the kind of person that earlier authorities made him out to be, but on the contrary, that he is a worthy object of interest. His untowardness is the effect of environment, an effect for which "society" is somehow responsible. If only his environment permitted him to live according to his lights, he would undoubtedly show himself to be quite a fellow; and the best way to secure a more favourable environment for him would be to let him arrange it for himself. The French Revolution acted powerfully as a springboard for this idea, projecting its influence in all directions throughout Europe.

On this side of the ocean a whole new continent stood ready for a large-scale experiment with this theory. It afforded every conceivable resource whereby the masses might develop a civilization made in their own likeness and after their own image. There was no force of tradition to disturb them in their preponderance, or to check them in a thoroughgoing disparagement of the Remnant. Immense natural wealth, unquestioned predominance, virtual isolation, freedom from external interference and the fear of it, and, finally, a century and a half of time – such are the advantages which the mass-man has had in bringing forth a civilization which should set the earlier preachers and philosophers at naught in their belief that nothing substantial can be expected from the masses, but only from the Remnant.

His success is unimpressive. On the evidence so far presented one must say, I think, that the mass-man’s conception of what life has to offer, and his choice of what to ask from life, seem now to be pretty well what they were in the times of Isaiah and Plato; and so too seem the catastrophic social conflicts and convulsions in which his views of life and his demands on life involve him. I do not wish to dwell on this, however, but merely to observe that the monstrously inflated importance of the masses has apparently put all thought of a possible mission to the Remnant out of the modern prophet’s head. This is obviously quite as it should be, provided that the earlier preachers and philosophers were actually wrong, and that all final hope of the human race is actually centred in the masses. If, on the other hand, it should turn out that the Lord and Isaiah and Plato and Marcus Aurelius were right in their estimate of the relative social value of the masses and the Remnant, the case is somewhat different. Moreover, since with everything in their favour the masses have so far given such an extremely discouraging account of themselves, it would seem that the question at issue between these two bodies of opinion might most profitably be reopened.

III

But without following up this suggestion, I wish only, as I said, to remark the fact that as things now stand Isaiah's job seems rather to go begging. Everyone with a message nowadays is, like my venerable European friend, eager to take it to the masses. His first, last and only thought is of mass-acceptance and mass-approval. His great care is to put his doctrine in such shape as will capture the masses' attention and interest. This attitude towards the masses is so exclusive, so devout, that one is reminded of the troglodytic monster described by Plato, and the assiduous crowd at the entrance to its cave, trying obsequiously to placate it and win its favour, trying to interpret its inarticulate noises, trying to find out what it wants, and eagerly offering it all sorts of things that they think might strike its fancy.

The main trouble with all this is its reaction upon the mission itself. It necessitates an opportunist sophistication of one's doctrine, which profoundly alters its character and reduces it to a mere placebo. If, say, you are a preacher, you wish to attract as large a congregation as you can, which means an appeal to the masses; and this, in turn, means adapting the terms of your message to the order of intellect and character that the masses exhibit. If you are an educator, say with a college on your hands, you wish to get as many students as possible, and you whittle down your requirements accordingly. If a writer, you aim at getting many readers; if a publisher, many purchasers; if a philosopher, many disciples; if a reformer, many converts; if a musician, many auditors; and so on. But as we see on all sides, in the realization of these several desires, the prophetic message is so heavily adulterated with trivialities, in every instance, that its effect on the masses is merely to harden them in their sins. Meanwhile, the Remnant, aware of this adulteration and of the desires that prompt it, turn their backs on the prophet and will have nothing to do with him or his message.

Isaiah, on the other hand, worked under no such disabilities. He preached to the masses only in the sense that he preached publicly. Anyone who liked might listen; anyone who liked might pass by. He knew that the Remnant would listen; and knowing also that nothing was to be expected of the masses under any circumstances, he made no specific appeal to them, did not accommodate his message to their measure in any way, and did not care two straws whether they heeded it or not. As a modern publisher might put it, he was not worrying about circulation or about advertising. Hence, with all such obsessions quite out of the way, he was in a position to do his level best, without fear or favour, and answerable only to his august Boss.

If a prophet were not too particular about making money out of his mission or getting a dubious sort of notoriety out of it, the foregoing considerations would lead one to say that serving the Remnant looks like a good job. An assignment that you can really put your back into, and do your best without thinking about results, is a real job; whereas serving the masses is at best only half a job, considering the inexorable conditions that the masses impose upon their servants. They ask you to give them what they want, they insist upon it, and will take nothing else; and following their whims, their irrational changes of fancy, their hot and cold fits, is a tedious business, to say nothing of the fact that what they want at any time makes very little call on one’s resources of prophesy. The Remnant, on the other hand, want only the best you have, whatever that may be. Give them that, and they are satisfied; you have nothing more to worry about. The prophet of the American masses must aim consciously at the lowest common denominator of intellect, taste and character among 120,000,000 people; and this is a distressing task. The prophet of the Remnant, on the contrary, is in the enviable position of Papa Haydn in the household of Prince Esterhazy. All Haydn had to do was keep forking out the very best music he knew how to produce, knowing it would be understood and appreciated by those for whom he produced it, and caring not a button what anyone else thought of it; and that makes a good job.

In a sense, nevertheless, as I have said, it is not a rewarding job. If you can tough the fancy of the masses, and have the sagacity to keep always one jump ahead of their vagaries and vacillations, you can get good returns in money from serving the masses, and good returns also in a mouth-to-ear type of notoriety:

Digito monstrari et dicier, Hic est!

We all know innumerable politicians, journalists, dramatists, novelists and the like, who have done extremely well by themselves in these ways. Taking care of the Remnant, on the contrary, holds little promise of any such rewards. A prophet of the Remnant will not grow purse-proud on the financial returns from his work, nor is it likely that he will get any great renown out of it. Isaiah’s case was exceptional to this second rule, and there are others, but not many.

It may be thought, then, that while taking care of the Remnant is no doubt a good job, it is not an especially interesting job because it is as a rule so poorly paid. I have my doubts about this. There are other compensations to be got out of a job besides money and notoriety, and some of them seem substantial enough to be attractive. Many jobs which do not pay well are yet profoundly interesting, as, for instance, the job of research student in the sciences is said to be; and the job of looking after the Remnant seems to me, as I have surveyed it for many years from my seat in the grandstand, to be as interesting as any that can be found in the world.

IV

What chiefly makes it so, I think, is that in any given society the Remnant are always so largely an unknown quantity. You do not know, and will never know, more than two things about them. You can be sure of those – dead sure, as our phrase is – but you will never be able to make even a respectable guess at anything else. You do not know, and will never know, who the Remnant are, nor what they are doing or will do. Two things you do know, and no more: First, that they exist; second, that they will find you. Except for these two certainties, working for the Remnant means working in impenetrable darkness; and this, I should say, is just the condition calculated most effectively to pique the interest of any prophet who is properly gifted with the imagination, insight and intellectual curiosity necessary to a successful pursuit of his trade.

The fascination and the despair of the historian, as he looks back upon Isaiah's Jewry, upon Plato's Athens, or upon Rome of the Antonines, is the hope of discovering and laying bare the "substratum of right-thinking and well-doing" which he knows must have existed somewhere in those societies because no kind of collective life can possibly go on without it. He finds tantalizing intimations of it here and there in many places, as in the Greek Anthology, in the scrapbook of Aulus Gellius, in the poems of Ausonius, and in the brief and touching tribute, Bene merenti, bestowed upon the unknown occupants of Roman tombs. But these are vague and fragmentary; they lead him nowhere in his search for some kind of measure on this substratum, but merely testify to what he already knew a priori – that the substratum did somewhere exist. Where it was, how substantial it was, what its power of self-assertion and resistance was – of all this they tell him nothing.

Similarly, when the historian of two thousand years hence, or two hundred years, looks over the available testimony to the quality of our civilization and tries to get any kind of clear, competent evidence concerning the substratum of right-thinking and well-doing which he knows must have been here, he will have a devil of a time finding it. When he has assembled all he can and has made even a minimum allowance for speciousness, vagueness, and confusion of motive, he will sadly acknowledge that his net result is simply nothing. A Remnant were here, building a substratum like coral insects; so much he knows, but he will find nothing to put him on the track of who and where and how many they were and what their work was like.

Concerning all this, too, the prophet of the present knows precisely as much and as little as the historian of the future; and that, I repeat, is what makes his job seem to me so profoundly interesting. One of the most suggestive episodes recounted in the Bible is that of a prophet's attempt – the only attempt of the kind on the record, I believe – to count up the Remnant. Elijah had fled from persecution into the desert, where the Lord presently overhauled him and asked what he was doing so far away from his job. He said that he was running away, not because he was a coward, but because all the Remnant had been killed off except himself. He had got away only by the skin of his teeth, and, he being now all the Remnant there was, if he were killed the True Faith would go flat. The Lord replied that he need not worry about that, for even without him the True Faith could probably manage to squeeze along somehow if it had to; "and as for your figures on the Remnant," He said, "I don't mind telling you that there are seven thousand of them back there in Israel whom it seems you have not heard of, but you may take My word for it that there they are."

At that time, probably the population of Israel could not run to much more than a million or so; and a Remnant of seven thousand out of a million is a highly encouraging percentage for any prophet. With seven thousand of the boys on his side, there was no great reason for Elijah to feel lonesome; and incidentally, that would be something for the modern prophet of the Remnant to think of when he has a touch of the blues. But the main point is that if Elijah the Prophet could not make a closer guess on the number of the Remnant than he made when he missed it by seven thousand, anyone else who tackled the problem would only waste his time.

The other certainty which the prophet of the Remnant may always have is that the Remnant will find him. He may rely on that with absolute assurance. They will find him without his doing anything about it; in fact, if he tries to do anything about it, he is pretty sure to put them off. He does not need to advertise for them nor resort to any schemes of publicity to get their attention. If he is a preacher or a public speaker, for example, he may be quite indifferent to going on show at receptions, getting his picture printed in the newspapers, or furnishing autobiographical material for publication on the side of "human interest." If a writer, he need not make a point of attending any pink teas, autographing books at wholesale, nor entering into any specious freemasonry with reviewers. All this and much more of the same order lies in the regular and necessary routine laid down for the prophet of the masses; it is, and must be, part of the great general technique of getting the mass-man's ear – or as our vigorous and excellent publicist, Mr. H. L. Mencken, puts it, the technique of boob-bumping. The prophet of the Remnant is not bound to this technique. He may be quite sure that the Remnant will make their own way to him without any adventitious aids; and not only so, but if they find him employing any such aids, as I said, it is ten to one that they will smell a rat in them and will sheer off.

The certainty that the Remnant will find him, however, leaves the prophet as much in the dark as ever, as helpless as ever in the matter of putting any estimate of any kind upon the Remnant; for, as appears in the case of Elijah, he remains ignorant of who they are that have found him or where they are or how many. They did not write in and tell him about it, after the manner of those who admire the vedettes of Hollywood, nor yet do they seek him out and attach themselves to his person. They are not that kind. They take his message much as drivers take the directions on a roadside signboard – that is, with very little thought about the signboard, beyond being gratefully glad that it happened to be there, but with every thought about the directions.

This impersonal attitude of the Remnant wonderfully enhances the interest of the imaginative prophet's job. Once in a while, just about often enough to keep his intellectual curiosity in good working order, he will quite accidentally come upon some distinct reflection of his own message in an unsuspected quarter. This enables him to entertain himself in his leisure moments with agreeable speculations about the course his message may have taken in reaching that particular quarter, and about what came of it after it got there. Most interesting of all are those instances, if one could only run them down (but one may always speculate about them), where the recipient himself no longer knows where nor when nor from whom he got the message – or even where, as sometimes happens, he has forgotten that he got it anywhere and imagines that it is all a self-sprung idea of his own.

Such instances as these are probably not infrequent, for, without presuming to enroll ourselves among the Remnant, we can all no doubt remember having found ourselves suddenly under the influence of an idea, the source of which we cannot possibly identify. "It came to us afterward," as we say; that is, we are aware of it only after it has shot up full-grown in our minds, leaving us quite ignorant of how and when and by what agency it was planted there and left to germinate. It seems highly probable that the prophet's message often takes some such course with the Remnant.

If, for example, you are a writer or a speaker or a preacher, you put forth an idea which lodges in the Unbewußtsein of a casual member of the Remnant and sticks fast there. For some time it is inert; then it begins to fret and fester until presently it invades the man's conscious mind and, as one might say, corrupts it. Meanwhile, he has quite forgotten how he came by the idea in the first instance, and even perhaps thinks he has invented it; and in those circumstances, the most interesting thing of all is that you never know what the pressure of that idea will make him do.

For these reasons it appears to me that Isaiah’s job is not only good but also extremely interesting; and especially so at the present time when nobody is doing it. If I were young and had the notion of embarking in the prophetical line, I would certainly take up this branch of the business; and therefore I have no hesitation about recommending it as a career for anyone in that position. It offers an open field, with no competition; our civilization so completely neglects and disallows the Remnant that anyone going in with an eye single to their service might pretty well count on getting all the trade there is.

Even assuming that there is some social salvage to be screened out of the masses, even assuming that the testimony of history to their social value is a little too sweeping, that it depresses hopelessness a little too far, one must yet perceive, I think, that the masses have prophets enough and to spare. Even admitting that in the teeth of history that hope of the human race may not be quite exclusively centred in the Remnant, one must perceive that they have social value enough to entitle them to some measure of prophetic encouragement and consolation, and that our civilization allows them none whatever. Every prophetic voice is addressed to the masses, and to them alone; the voice of the pulpit, the voice of education, the voice of politics, of literature, drama, journalism – all these are directed towards the masses exclusively, and they marshal the masses in the way that they are going.

One might suggest, therefore, that aspiring prophetical talent may well turn to another field. Sat patriae Priamoque datum – whatever obligation of the kind may be due the masses is already monstrously overpaid. So long as the masses are taking up the tabernacle of Moloch and Chiun, their images, and following the star of their god Buncombe, they will have no lack of prophets to point the way that leadeth to the More Abundant Life; and hence a few of those who feel the prophetic afflatus might do better to apply themselves to serving the Remnant. It is a good job, an interesting job, much more interesting than serving the masses; and moreover it is the only job in our whole civilization, as far as I know, that offers a virgin field.

[Hugh]

Politics in action

The reason for gaining political power is to be able to make laws and enforce those laws.
There is no solution possible without political power.

If we gain the ability to make and enforce laws, we will have complete control over ourselves and our opponents.

Politics is a numbers game.
We have the numbers, our opponents don't.

Thus our opponents work as hard as possible to convince us that our participation in politics is useless.

Our opponents do not have the numbers to compete with us on a large scale, especially at ward/municipal/county level, which is where the national laws are actually implemented.
Or not.

Politics on its own is not the total solution, but it does however form an integral part of the overall solution.

In order to understand the need for becoming involved, here are some excellent explanations of the current situation.

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Fall Of The Republic 1/14: The Presidency Of Barack H Obama
YouTube - Fall Of The Republic 1/14: The Presidency Of Barack H Obama


The Obama Deception
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Full version
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Endgame
In 13 parts
YouTube - Alex Jones - Endgame PART 1/13

or
Full version
YouTube - Endgame:HQ Full Video- Blueprint For Global Enslavement


Terrorstorm - Final Cut
In 14 Parts
YouTube - Alex Jones-Terrorstorm Final Cut Part 1 of 14