Gene Sharp died peacefully in his home in Boston on 28 January. He was a pioneer in the study of nonviolent action, and applied his ideas to national defense as well as to nonviolent insurrections against autocracy.
In the late 1950s he worked in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oslo on a study of Gandhi, with
Arne Næss and
Johan Galtung and published a widely circulated pamphlet,
Tyranny Could Not Quell Them! about the Norwegian teachers’ resistance to the nazification of Norwegian schools during the German occupation in World War II. His most recent visit to Oslo occurred in 2012, when he spoke at the screening of a film about his work, ‘
How to Start a Revolution’.
For many years the impact of his work was mostly limited to other academics and the pacifist wing of the peace movement. But in recent years, his work was closely read and widely used by nonviolent activists in a number of places and made him a household name in several countries. Activists in the peaceful regime change in Belgrade and in the Arab Spring, in particular, were influenced by his writings.
Nils Petter Gleditsch