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War has been a part of my life[br]since I can remember.

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I was born in Afghanistan,[br]just six months after the Soviets invaded,

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and even though I was too young[br]to understand what was happening,

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I had a deep sense of the suffering[br]and the fear around me.

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Those early experiences had a major impact[br]on how I now think about war and conflict.

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I learned that when people[br]have a fundamental issue at stake,

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for most of them,

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giving in is not an option.

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For these types conflicts --

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when people's rights are violated,

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when their countries are occupied,

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when they're oppressed and humiliated --

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they need a powerful way[br]to resist and to fight back.

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Which means that no matter how destructive[br]and terrible violence is,

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if people see it as their only choice,

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they will use it.

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Most of us are concerned[br]with the level of violence in the world.

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But we're not going to end war

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by telling people[br]that violence is morally wrong.

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Instead, we must offer them a tool

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that's at least as powerful[br]and as effective as violence.

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This is the work I do.

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For the past 13 years,

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I've been teaching people

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in some of the most difficult[br]situations around the world

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how they can use nonviolent[br]struggle to conduct conflict.

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Most people associate this type of action[br]with Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

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But people have been using[br]nonviolent action for thousands of years.

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In fact, most of the rights[br]that we have today in this country --

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as women,

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as minorities,

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as workers,

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as people of different sexual orientations

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and citizens concerned[br]with the environment --

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these rights weren't handed to us.

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They were won by people[br]who fought for them

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and who sacrificed for them.

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But because we haven't learned[br]from this history,

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nonviolent struggle as a technique[br]is widely misunderstood.

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I met recently with a group[br]of Ethiopian activists,

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and they told me something[br]that I hear a lot.

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They said they'd already[br]tried nonviolent action,

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and it hadn't worked.

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Years ago they held a protest.

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The government arrested everyone,[br]and that was the end of that.

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The idea that nonviolent struggle[br]is equivalent to street protests

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is a real problem.

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Because although protests can be a great[br]way to show that people want change,

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on their own, they don't[br]actually create change --

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at least change that is fundamental.

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(Laughter)

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Powerful opponents are not going to give[br]people what they want

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just because they asked nicely ...

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or even not so nicely.

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(Laughter)

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Nonviolent struggle works[br]by destroying an opponent,

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not physically,

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but by identifying the institutions[br]that an opponent needs to survive,

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and then denying them[br]those sources of power.

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Nonviolent activists[br]can neutralize the military

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by causing soldiers to defect.

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They can disrupt the economy[br]through strikes and boycotts.

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And they can challenge[br]government propaganda

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by creating alternative media.

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There are a variety of methods[br]that can be used to do this.

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My colleague and mentor, Gene Sharp,

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has identified 198 methods[br]of nonviolent action.

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And protest is only one.

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Let me give you a recent example.

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Until a few months ago,

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Guatemala was ruled[br]by corrupt former military officials

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with ties to organized crime.

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People were generally aware of this,

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but most of them felt powerless[br]to do anything about it --

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until one group of citizens,[br]just 12 regular people,

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put out a call on Facebook[br]to their friends

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to meet in the central plaza,[br]holding signs with a message:

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"Renuncia YA" --

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resign already.

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To their surprise,

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30,000 people showed up.

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They stayed there for months[br]as protests spread throughout the country.

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At one point,

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the organizers delivered hundreds of eggs[br]to various government buildings

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with a message:

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"If you don't have the huevos" --

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the balls --

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"to stop corrupt candidates[br]from running for office,

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you can borrow ours."

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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President Molina responded

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by vowing that he would never step down.

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And the activists realized[br]that they couldn't just keep protesting

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and ask the president to resign.

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They needed to leave him no choice.

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So they organized a general strike,

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in which people throughout[br]the country refused to work.

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In Guatemala City alone,

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over 400 businesses[br]and schools shut their doors.

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Meanwhile,

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farmers throughout the country[br]blocked major roads.

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Within five days,

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the president,

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along with dozens of other[br]government officials,

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resigned already.

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(Applause)

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I've been greatly inspired

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by the creativity and bravery[br]of people using nonviolent action

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in nearly every country in the world.

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For example,

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recently a group of activists in Uganda

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released a crate of pigs in the streets.

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You can see here that the police[br]are confused about what to do with them.

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(Laughter)

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The pigs were painted[br]the color of the ruling party.

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One pig was even wearing a hat,

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a hat that people recognized.

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(Laughter)

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Activists around the world[br]are getting better at grabbing headlines,

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but these isolated actions do very little

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if they're not part of a larger strategy.

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A general wouldn't march[br]his troops into battle

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unless he had a plan to win the war.

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Yet this is how most of the world's[br]nonviolent movements operate.

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Nonviolent struggle is just as complex[br]as military warfare,

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if not more.

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Its participants must be well-trained[br]and have clear objectives,

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and its leaders must have a strategy[br]of how to achieve those objectives.

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The technique of war has been developed[br]over thousands of years

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with massive resources

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and some of our best minds[br]dedicated to understanding

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and improving how it works.

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Meanwhile, nonviolent struggle[br]is rarely systematically studied,

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and even though the number is growing,

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there are still only a few dozen people[br]in the world who are teaching it.

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This is dangerous,

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because we now know that our old[br]approaches of dealing with conflict

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are not adequate for the new[br]challenges that we're facing.

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The US government recently admitted

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that it's in a stalemate[br]in its war against ISIS.

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But what most people don't know

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is that people have stood up to ISIS[br]using nonviolent action.

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When ISIS captured Mosul in June 2014,

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they announced that they were putting[br]in place a new public school curriculum,

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based on their own extremist ideology.

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But on the first day of school,

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not a single child showed up.

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Parents simply refused to send them.

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They told journalists they would rather[br]homeschool their children

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than to have them brainwashed.

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This is an example[br]of just one act of defiance

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in just one city.

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But what if it was coordinated

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with the dozens of other acts[br]of nonviolent resistance

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that have taken place against ISIS?

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What if the parents' boycott[br]was part of a larger strategy

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to identify and cut off the resources[br]that ISIS needs to function;

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the skilled labor needed to produce food;

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the engineers needed[br]to extract and refine oil;

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the media infrastructure[br]and communications networks

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and transportation systems,

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and the local businesses[br]that ISIS relies on?

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It may be difficult[br]to imagine defeating ISIS

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with action that is nonviolent.

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But it's time we challenge[br]the way we think about conflict

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and the choices we have in facing it.

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Here's an idea worth spreading:

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let's learn more about where[br]nonviolent action has worked

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and how we can make it more powerful,

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just like we do with other[br]systems and technologies

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that are constantly being refined[br]to better meet human needs.

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It may be that we can improve[br]nonviolent action

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to a point where it is increasingly[br]used in place of war.

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Violence as a tool of conflict[br]could then be abandoned

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in the same way that bows and arrows were,

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because we have replaced them[br]with weapons that are more effective.

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With human innovation, we can make[br]nonviolent struggle more powerful

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than the newest and latest[br]technologies of war.

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The greatest hope for humanity[br]lies not in condemning violence

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but in making violence obsolete.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)