The Velvet Revolution: A Case Study in Strategic Nonviolence

The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia provides a unique case of the successful use of strategic nonviolence. This paper will seek to provide a basic background of the causal events leading to the revolution in 1989. After establishing a suitable background from which to frame the analytical portion of the paper, it will be asked what role nonviolence played in the movement and how that nonviolence was applied strategically to facilitate its goals. In doing so, this paper will draw upon the research of Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler, two leading nonviolent theorists, and their twelve principles of strategic nonviolence. Drawing upon the events of the Velvet Revolution in the context of these principles, it should become apparent that while the nonviolence of the Velvet Revolution was largely based in the highly principled rhetoric of its leaders, nonviolence was applied well within the strategic principles laid out by Ackerman and Kruegler, contributing to the overwhelming success of the revolution as a whole.