For over 20 years I have focused on supporting nonviolent movements to advance human rights and democracy.

This work involves presenting, research, writing, leading workshops, grantmaking, and developing programs for practitioners and scholars around the world.

For over 20 years I have focused on supporting nonviolent movements to advance human rights and democracy.

This work involves presenting, research, writing, leading workshops, grantmaking, and developing programs for practitioners and scholars around the world.

For over 20 years I have focused on supporting nonviolent movements to advance human rights and democracy.

This work involves presenting, research, writing, leading workshops, grantmaking, and developing programs for practitioners and scholars around the world.

hardy-merriman-teaching2-mobile

I am president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and senior technical advisor to USAID's Powered by the People program.

Within ICNC, I am currently principal investigator of the Civil Resistance Funders Initiative.

From 2021-23, I was also a principal investigator for the Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave project, focusing on how foreign policy can better support pro-democracy and human rights movements around the world.

Previously I served as ICNC's president & CEO from January 2015 until June 2021. Concurrently from 2016-2018 I was an adjunct lecturer at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University).

From 2012-2014 I was ICNC's vice president and director of content development, during which time I was founding director of the James Lawson Institute, an eight-day intensive program for North American organizers and activists focusing on nonviolent civil resistance, in 2013 and 2014.

From 2007-2012, I was a senior advisor to ICNC and I was director of programs and research from 2005-2007. I worked at the Albert Einstein Institution from 2002-2005.

My latest publication is Harnessing Our Power to End (HOPE) Political Violence (2024).

Additional recent works include Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave: A Playbook for Countering the Authoritarian Threat (2023); the essay “We Need People Power to Address a World in Peril” (2023); a bibliographic entry on civil resistance for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies (2023); the book Glossary of Civil Resistance: A Resource for Study and Translation of Key Terms (2021); the training manual Hold the Line: A Guide to Defending Democracy (2020); and the report Preventing Mass Atrocities: From a Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance (2019).

I previously contributed to the books Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback? (2015), Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East (2010), Nonviolence: An Alternative for Countering Global Terror(ism) (2007) and Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential (2005), as well as two literature reviews on civil resistance and the activist training curriculum A Guide to Effective Nonviolent Struggle (2007).

I am an editor at Minds of the Movement. Recent blog posts and a selected publication list are available here.

I am president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and senior technical advisor to USAID's Powered by the People program.

Within ICNC, I am currently principal investigator of the Civil Resistance Funders Initiative.

From 2021-23, I was also a principal investigator for the Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave project, focusing on how foreign policy can better support pro-democracy and human rights movements around the world.

Previously I served as ICNC's president & CEO from January 2015 until June 2021. Concurrently from 2016-2018 I was an adjunct lecturer at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University).

From 2012-2014 I was ICNC's vice president and director of content development, during which time I was founding director of the James Lawson Institute, an eight-day intensive program for North American organizers and activists focusing on nonviolent civil resistance, in 2013 and 2014.

From 2007-2012, I was a senior advisor to ICNC and I was director of programs and research from 2005-2007. I worked at the Albert Einstein Institution from 2002-2005.

My latest publication is Harnessing Our Power to End (HOPE) Political Violence (2024).

Additional recent works include Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave: A Playbook for Countering the Authoritarian Threat (2023); the essay “We Need People Power to Address a World in Peril” (2023); a bibliographic entry on civil resistance for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies (2023); the book Glossary of Civil Resistance: A Resource for Study and Translation of Key Terms (2021); the training manual Hold the Line: A Guide to Defending Democracy (2020); and the report Preventing Mass Atrocities: From a Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance (2019).

I previously contributed to the books Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback? (2015), Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East (2010), Nonviolence: An Alternative for Countering Global Terror(ism) (2007) and Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential (2005), as well as two literature reviews on civil resistance and the activist training curriculum A Guide to Effective Nonviolent Struggle (2007).

I am an editor at Minds of the Movement. Recent blog posts and a selected publication list are available here.

Selected Presentation and Guest Lecturing Venues:

Alliance for Peacebuilding annual conference
American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies annual conference
American Society of International Law
→ Watch presentation
American University
Amherst College
Atlantic Council
Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Queensland University
Cambridge University (England)
Carter Center
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney (Australia)
Center for Victims of Torture, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Central Connecticut State University
Central European University
Chautauqua Institution
→ Watch presentation
→ Read related article
Colorado College
Community of Democracies
Council on Foreign Relations
Creighton University
→ Watch presentation
Dartmouth College
European Humanities University (Lithuania)
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) (Ecuador)
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
→ Watch presentation
Frontiers of Democracy conference, Tufts University
→ Watch presentation
George Mason University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Golden West College

Harvard University
→ Read related article
→ Read related article
International Peace Research Association Annual Conference
International Summit on Conflict Resolution Education
The James Lawson Institute
James Madison University
Kadir Has University (Turkey)
Middlebury College
→ Read related article
Monterey Institute for International Studies
National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
New York University
Oberlin College
Peace Research Institute of Oslo (Norway)
Portland State University
School for Authentic Journalism (Mexico)
Sonoma State University
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
United States Institute of Peace (USIP)
→ Watch presentation
University of Amsterdam
University of Basque Country (Spain)
University of Chicago
University of Denver
University of Deusto (Spain)
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
University of San Francisco
University of Sarajevo (Bosnia)
University of St. Andrews (Scotland)
University of Toronto
Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech)
Wesleyan University
The 23rd Session of the Youth Assembly

* Note: Videos of some of these presentations are available for viewing here.

Selected Presentation and Guest Lecturing Venues:

Alliance for Peacebuilding annual conference
American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies annual conference
American Society of International Law
→ Watch presentation
American University
Amherst College
Atlantic Council
Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Queensland University
Cambridge University (England)
Carter Center
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney (Australia)
Center for Victims of Torture, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Central Connecticut State University
Central European University
Chautauqua Institution
→ Watch presentation
→ Read related article
Colorado College
Community of Democracies
Council on Foreign Relations
Dartmouth College
European Humanities University (Lithuania)
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) (Ecuador)
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
→ Watch presentation
Frontiers of Democracy conference, Tufts University
→ Watch presentation
George Mason University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Golden West College
Harvard University
→ Read related article
→ Read related article
International Peace Research Association Annual Conference
International Summit on Conflict Resolution Education
The James Lawson Institute
James Madison University
Kadir Has University (Turkey)
Middlebury College
→ Read related article
Monterey Institute for International Studies
National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
New York University
Oberlin College
Peace Research Institute of Oslo (Norway)
Portland State University
School for Authentic Journalism (Mexico)
Sonoma State University
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
United States Institute of Peace (USIP)
→ Watch presentation
University of Amsterdam
University of Basque Country (Spain)
University of Chicago
University of Denver
University of Deusto (Spain)
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
University of San Francisco
University of Sarajevo (Bosnia)
University of St. Andrews (Scotland)
University of Toronto
Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech)
Wesleyan University

* Note: Videos of some of these presentations are available for viewing here.