(Extra) Seminar on “Color Revolutions”
Stellan Vinthagen October 30th, 2008
On Thursday 6 Nov we will have an extra seminar; on “Color Revolutions”. Asya Leonova will present her ongoing research on the theme. The concept has come into fashion after the peaceful revolutions in Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia, Lebanon, etc the recent years (see eg the most recent articles in New York Times and The Canadian refering to the concept). Asya is in the beginning of her researh and wants an early input from the network on her research. Two related papers on the theme is part of the material for the seminar (download paper 1, and paper 2). Asya will shortly before the seminar as well publish a short seminar text.
For a brief introduction to the theme, check Wikipedia’s entry on the concept, or the article by Chaulia on Open Democracy. For those of you who want to come to the seminar with well prepared understanding of the theories behind, check the relevant texts on the resource site of International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
The seminar will deal with the diversity of consequences that the “color factor” had on both governmental policies toward protest activities, and, broader, on any collective grassroot action, and on the patterns of association, repertoirs and framing on the side of the protesters themselves.
You are all welcome! If you are new to the debate on colored revolutions or someone already doing research on it, as is the Scandinavian Research Seminar on Nonviolence, which will participate. (The seminar will happen at 13-15 and will be followed by the ordinary seminar, this time on the Surveillance society and resistance, se the programme at “Seminars”).
- Civil Disobedience , Democracy , Nonviolent Action , Protest , Resistance , Resistance Studies , Seminar , The Network
- Comments(5)
I find it a bit funny that neither the name “Soros”, nor the phrase “open society”, is mentioned in any of the papers…
Btw, don’t forget the Goethes colour theory – especially the yellow factor
You are right Rasmus, it is funny, and, serious, since of course, Soros and his organisation Open Society plays a key role, but not, necessarily the deciding one. There are other forces playing here as well, besides internal oppositions, we have the travelling trainers and inspiration givers within the Serbian Otpor (Resistance), which also have done a training manual for bringing down dictators. And, there are several cases in which Soros et al have tried to bring down dictators and failed, like in eg Russia or Belarus. And, there exists a conspiracy theory claiming that all these revolutions are not in fact revolutions at all, but some sort of designed US soft coups…and then, the economic support from eg Soros is the Example No. 1. I can give lots of arguments for why that does not hold, but here is not the place and time to develop on that.
Finally, the focus, which is common, if you listen to Chavez or Putin, on the “Soros money” or “US orchestration” behind all this, is missing the point. The point is: how is it possible to bring down so many dictators now (about 50 the last 30 years!), when earlier it has been so difficult, even though US money has poured into various (armed) fractions? That is the interesting question. And that question demands that we look into power structures, resistance dynamics, etc. (But I am not implying, that economic assistance of oppositional forces doesn’t matter, it does, but only as part of the dynamic).
Still, it is not serious, as you imply, to not discuss the influence by such powerful (“benign”) US forces. All this was a long way of saying that I agree with you, it is funny.
PS: Stephen Zunes at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict is one of the main debaters on “color revolutions”, and he has in several papers only this year discussed the issues of hidden US imperialism in the revolutions (and is not convinced of the criticism).
PPS: The peace researcher Jörgen Johansen wrote last year a paper on this theme, and did also dismiss it (as a main explanatory factor). He will be present at the seminar on Thursday. I am sure he want to share his paper with you if you are interested.
Well, there was indeed lots of Soros money given to Serbian Otpor as well. As to many great initiatives of my Serbian friends (which I will meet next week). The OSI has indeed also sponsored a number of events which I have attended, and indirectly also me, as I have sometimes gotten paid to attend.
The thing is not whether Soros is “benign” or “sinister”. His foundation funds lots of great stuff, however, not mentioning that there is an agenda is a bit … funny.
That’s all.
PS.
Equaling Soros’ OSI with “hidden US imperialism” is of course absurd. It is a separate entity with aims separate from that of the US government.
[...] The Resistance Studies Network, och tidigare under dagen kommer det hållas ett till seminarium om Color Revolutions. [...]