Disclaimer: The following blog post is not a reflection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s opinion on the below topics.
By Talia Lunken
Gene Sharp is the “world’s leading writer on nonviolent action.”[2] Throughout Gene Sharp’s career, he has been referred to as the “Clausewitz of nonviolent warfare,” “the Machiavelli of nonviolence,” “the dictator slayer,” and “a dictator’s worst nightmare.”[3] Why “Clausewitz of nonviolent warfare?” Carl von Clausewitz was a 19th-century Prussian general, military theorist, and famous author of On War. Clauswitz’s On War deals with the ethical problem of war, regarding it as an extreme but a natural expression of policy.[4] Sharp analyzed nonviolent struggle to a similar level as Clausewitz did to warfare. Sharp’s nickname, “the Machiavelli of nonviolence,” can be attributed to his strategic approach to political power. Niccolo Machiavelli was a political philosopher, famously known for The Prince, which focuses on the question of political strength and stability.[5] In an interview with Afif Safieh, a Palestinian Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, in March 1986 and March 1987, Sharp commented on being called Machiavelli and Clausewitz. Sharp said, “I take that as a compliment. Machiavelli was attempting to deal with the world as it was, rather than imagining that some ideal world could come into existence just out of one’s dreams… Clausewitz was not focusing on why war is noble, or even why it is supposedly necessary. Instead, his book, On War, is an exercise in the use of one’s mind in formulating strategies to oppose the enemy.”[6]
Gene Sharp was born in North Baltimore, Ohio, on January 21, 1928, to Reverend Paul Sharp and primary education teacher Eva Sharp. He received a Bachelor of Arts in social sciences in 1949 and continued his education at Ohio State University, earning a Master of Arts degree in sociology in 1951. Sharp’s thesis, “Nonviolence: A Sociological Study,” foreshadowed his research and career.
Sharp was charged with draft evasion during the Korean War, a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison. In 1953, he was arrested and imprisoned for nine months. During this time, he corresponded with physicist Albert Einstein, who would later write the introduction to his first book, Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power.[8]
Sharp’s research on the nuances of nonviolence continued from 1958 to 1960 and was supported by a stipend from the Institute for Social Research in Oslo.[9] Sharp’s early work focused on Mahatma Gandhi. Gene Sharp published his first book, Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power, in 1960, which provided an overview of Gandhi’s philosophy and historical case studies of how he used his philosophy to bring about justice and peace. He published Gandhi Faces the Storm a year later, which focuses on the last two years of Gandhi’s life.[10]
From 1964 to 1965, Sharp worked with Arne Naess, a philosopher who was also interested in Gandhi, at the Institute of Philosophy and the History of Ideas at the University of Oslo. This research culminated in 1968 with a PHD in political theory from Oxford University. Later, Sharp received two honorary degrees: Doctor of Laws from Manhattan College in 1983 and Doctor of Humanitarian Service from Rivier College in 1996. From 1972 to 1986, Sharp was a tenured professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where he worked in the Department of Political Science and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He was also affiliated with research at Harvard University from 1965 to 1997.[11]
Sharp was recruited by economist Thomas Schelling to join the Center for International Affairs (CIA) at Harvard in 1965. The CIA was founded in 1958 as a preeminent Cold War think tank. Schelling recognized Sharp’s ideas as potentially being useful to the Cold War project. The defense committee at the time was interested in what they called peace research. Sharp’s research ended up being funded by the Department of Defense. Sharp described the CIA at Harvard as his academic home and was awarded his own center in the 1980s. According to an official CIA at Harvard historian, “Sharp was ‘one of the generation’s most influential theorists’ whose work was ‘pioneering and enduring.’”[12]
In 1973, Sharp published his most well-known work, a three-part series, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, which was a revised version of his doctoral thesis. Thomas Schelling, who brought Sharp into the CIA, wrote the introduction to this book. Part One, Power and Struggle, discusses the nature of political power, contrasting the “monolith theory” with “pluralistic dependency theory.” The monolith theory “holds that the only way to control or eradicate government power is through violent force.[14] The pluralistic dependency theory holds that power is derived from the consent of people and is the result of several sources. Part Two, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, consists of 198 methods of nonviolent action.[15] Sharp breaks the methods into five main categories: methods of nonviolent protests and persuasion, methods of social noncooperation, methods of economic noncooperation, methods of political noncooperation, and methods of nonviolent intervention. Part three, The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action, “focuses on the forces that lead to constant change in the process of carrying out nonviolent action.” This three-part work is widely regarded as a classic.[16] Sharp’s books were used in the 1990s in the planning of nonviolence defense against the Soviet Union. They have been circulated in many of the world’s most repressive states.[17]
In 1983, Gene Sharp went on to found the Albert Einstein Institution in Boston to “promote research, policy studies, and education on the strategic uses of nonviolent struggle in the face of dictatorship, war, genocide, and oppression.”[18] Sharp continued to write many more books from Boston. In 1993, he wrote From Dictatorship to Democracy, a book that would become one of the seminal works for democracy activists worldwide. It was easy to translate and was translated into more than 34 languages, reaching all continents. He made this book and other key works available for free online at the Albert Einstein Institution website.[19] Sharp had been asked to write about Burma, but he wrote From Dictatorship to Democracy generically, as he didn’t know Burma well.[20]
Gene Sharp continued to write several more books. He published Self-Liberation: A Guide to Strategic Planning for Action to End a Dictatorship or Other Oppression in 2010, a “curriculum designed to enable groups to self-reliantly develop grand strategies for their struggles.”[21] In 2012, he published Sharp’s Dictionary of Power and Struggle: Language of Civil Resistance in Conflicts, and his book How Nonviolent Struggle Works was published in 2013. The documentary, How to Start a Revolution, was released in 2011 and focuses on Sharp’s writings and their impact on nonviolence resistance movements worldwide. On January 28, 2018, Sharp passed away at the age of 90.[22]
Gene Sharp leaves behind a legacy of scholarship with his many books and writings on nonviolence. These books have “slipped across borders and hidden from secret policemen all over the world.”[23] Sharp played a key role in systematizing the nonviolence field by classifying methods of nonviolent action and elaborating on the theory of power. He catalogued hundreds of nonviolence techniques and offered a framework for understanding how nonviolent action works. Sharp’s theory of power focuses on obedience as the key, as “nonviolent action constitutes a refusal by subjects to obey.”[24] His work remains relevant through activism to bring about social and political change, and the ongoing relevance of scholarship. Sharp has influenced political events around the world, such as the Arab Spring.[25] His work has served as a foundation for growing literature on the effectiveness of nonviolent action.[26]
[1] Nord, Even. “Gene out of the Bottle: An Interview with Dr Gene Sharp, Author of ‘from Dictatorship to Democracy.’” openDemocracy, February 17, 2012. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opensecurity/gene-out-of-bottle-interview-with-dr-gene-sharp-author-of-from-dict/.
[2] Martin, Brian. “Gene Sharp’s Theory of Power.” Journal of Peace Research 26, no. 2 (1989): 213–22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/423870.
[3] Ammons, Joshua, and Christopher J. Coyne. “Gene Sharp: The ‘Clausewitz of Nonviolent Warfare.’” The Independent Review 23, no. 1 (2018): 149–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26591805.
[4] Paret, Peter, Gordon A. Craig, and Felix Gilbert. “Clausewitz.” In Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, edited by Peter Paret, 186–214. Princeton University Press, 1986. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv8xnhvw.11.
[5] Misra, Kashi Prasad. “MACHIAVELLI.” The Indian Journal of Political Science 13, no. 3/4 (1952): 17–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42743396.
[6] Sharp, Gene, and Afif Safieh. “Gene Sharp: Nonviolent Struggle.” Journal of Palestine Studies 17, no. 1 (1987): 37–55. https://doi.org/10.2307/2536650.
[7] “Our Story.” AEI/ Empowering Humankind. Accessed April 6, 2025. https://www.aeinstein.org/our-history.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ammons, Joshua, and Christopher J. Coyne. “Gene Sharp: The ‘Clausewitz of Nonviolent Warfare.’” The Independent Review 23, no. 1 (2018): 149–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26591805.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Jacobin. How Gene Sharp’s Neoliberal Nonviolence Shaped the Left. YouTube video, 1:10:56. Streamed live on September 20, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwQd5lREBOw.
[13] “In Theory and in Practice: Harvard’s Center for International Affairs, 1958–1983.” Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Accessed April 7, 2025. https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/about/theory-and-practice-harvards-center-international-affairs-1958%E2%80%931983.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Martin, Brian. “Gene Sharp’s Theory of Power.” Journal of Peace Research 26, no. 2 (1989): 213–22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/423870.
[17] Arrow, Ruaridh. “Gene Sharp: The Academic Who Wrote the Playbook for Nonviolent Revolution.” Politico Magazine, December 30, 2018. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/30/gene -sharp-obituary-academic-nonviolent-revolution-223555/.
[18] Nord, Even. “Gene out of the Bottle: An Interview with Dr Gene Sharp, Author of ‘from Dictatorship to Democracy.’” openDemocracy, February 17, 2012. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opensecurity/gene-out-of-bottle-interview-with-dr-gene-sharp-author-of-from-dict/.
[19] “Gene Sharp.” Right Livelihood, September 11, 2024. https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/gene-sharp/.
[20] Ruaridh Arrow, How to Start a Revolution. Directed by Ruaridh Arrow. London: The Documentary Company, 2011. Documentary film.
[21] “Gene Sharp.” Right Livelihood, September 11, 2024. https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/gene-sharp/.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Arrow, Ruaridh. “Gene Sharp: Author of the Nonviolent Revolution Rulebook.” BBC News, February 21, 2011. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12522848.
[24] Martin, Brian. “Gene Sharp’s Theory of Power.” Journal of Peace Research 26, no. 2 (1989): 213–22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/423870.
[25] Arrow, Ruaridh. “Gene Sharp: The Academic Who Wrote the Playbook for Nonviolent Revolution.” Politico Magazine, December 30, 2018. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/30/gene -sharp-obituary-academic-nonviolent-revolution-223555/.
[26] Ammons, Joshua, and Christopher J. Coyne. “Gene Sharp: The ‘Clausewitz of Nonviolent Warfare.’” The Independent Review 23, no. 1 (2018): 149–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26591805.