Since writing about the influence of Gene Sharp’s book, From Dictatorship to Democracy, I’ve been thinking about Libya.
One of Dr Sharp’s core contentions is that it is almost never the best strategy to meet the force of dictators with force. He offers a wide range of non-violent alternatives, all of them proven to be successful.
What he says about the use of violence is twofold:
First that it rarely is successful because the dictator nearly always has much greater firepower at his command.
And second that experience shows that in this situation it is more likely for one dictatorship to be followed by another.
Time will show whether the use of military might in Libya will have led to freedom and democracy. Or whether this aspiration has been fatally compromised.
By the way, Dr Sharp encourages us to download his (shortish) book free.
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