Introducing the Strategies of Resistance Data Project

The Strategies of Resistance Data Project (SRDP) provides a global dataset of 1,124 organizations involved in self-determination disputes between 1960 and 2005. Unlike previous datasets that focus on mass campaigns or violent actors, SRDP uses the organization as the unit of analysis to track tactical shifts. Findings indicate that nonviolent tactics are more common than violence in these movements, and organizations are more likely to switch from violence to nonviolence than vice versa.

• The SRDP dataset includes 1,124 organizations involved in movements for national self-determination across 76 countries and 138 movements between 1960 and 2005.
• Nonviolent tactics are more prevalent than violent tactics among organizations in self-determination movements; 40% of organizations used nonviolent tactics at some point, compared to approximately 30% that employed violence against the state.
• A significant portion of organizations employ a diversity of tactics, with about 15% using both violent and nonviolent tactics in the same year.
• Analysis of tactical switching reveals that organizations are more likely to transition from violence to nonviolence than from nonviolence to violence, contradicting the assumption that actors simply 'resort' to violence.
• A comparison with the NAVCO 2.0 dataset shows that the majority of resistance activity occurs outside of large-scale mass campaigns; nearly 70% of nonviolent and 54% of violent organization-years in SRDP took place outside the context of a NAVCO campaign.
• The SRDP categorizes nonviolent tactics into five distinct types: economic noncooperation, protest and demonstration, nonviolent intervention, social noncooperation, and political noncooperation.
• At the organization level, a higher degree of movement fragmentation is associated with a switch from violence to nonviolence, but not with a switch from nonviolence to violence.
• At the movement level, the presence of at least one organization demanding independence is associated with a decreased likelihood of stopping nonviolence and an increased likelihood of ceasing violence.

APA

Cunningham, K. G., Dahl, M., & Frugé, A. (n.d.). Introducing the Strategies of Resistance Data Project. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/06d8a550-3809-4940-9902-28cfba5a4351/Introducing the Strategies of Resistance data project.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Cunningham, Kathleen Gallagher, Marianne Dahl, and Anne Frugé. Introducing the Strategies of Resistance Data Project. Peace Research Institute Oslo, n.d. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/06d8a550-3809-4940-9902-28cfba5a4351/Introducing the Strategies of Resistance data project.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Cunningham |first1=Kathleen Gallagher |last2=Dahl |first2=Marianne |last3=Frugé |first3=Anne |title=Introducing the Strategies of Resistance Data Project |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/06d8a550-3809-4940-9902-28cfba5a4351/Introducing the Strategies of Resistance data project.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cunninghamndintroducing, author = {Cunningham, Kathleen Gallagher and Dahl, Marianne and Frugé, Anne}, title = {{Introducing the Strategies of Resistance Data Project}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/06d8a550-3809-4940-9902-28cfba5a4351/Introducing the Strategies of Resistance data project.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }