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Scholar Gene Sharp reviewed thousands of instances of nonviolent resistance and cataloged 198 different methods based on real-world examples. He referred to these methods as weapons to emphasize that they are to be used in conflict situations to create a dynamic of ‘political jiu-jitsu’ that can throw a violent opponent off balance and weaken their position of power. In his 1973 book The Politics of Nonviolent Action, he grouped these methods into three broad categories: protest and persuasion, noncooperation, and intervention. Sharp then broke those down further into smaller classifications which include both successful and unsuccessful case studies. The content here is taken from Part Two: The Methods of Nonviolent Action.
Sharp explains that nonviolent action is designed to operate against opponents who are willing and able to use violent sanctions to achieve their goals. There should be no assumption in any of these methods that an opponent will renounce or restrict their use of violence when faced with nonviolent opposition. In fact, retaliation is often a direct result of the opposition recognizing that a nonviolent strategy poses a serious threat to their policy or regime. Accordingly, nonviolent activists must be willing to risk repression to achieve their goals. The possibility and severity of repression will vary, but it can be more restrained when compared with responses to violent tactics.
According to Sharp, nonviolent activists deliberately refuse to challenge an opponent on their own terms, as violence against violence reinforces itself as a tactic. The nonviolent group must demonstrate that violence is unnecessary to achieve their goals and that fear of repression has been overcome. To avoid strengthening their opponent and weakening themselves, it is important for activists to maintain disciplined contrast between methods even in the face of brutal repression. Because these methods are so contrary and rely on different forces of change in society, Sharp argues that a repressive opponent will struggle to grasp the moral power wielded by nonviolent activists and undermine their own position. Mahatma Gandhi compared this to a man violently striking water with a sword and dislocating his own arm as a result.
If nonviolent activists maintain discipline, sustain their struggle, and involve significant sections of the population the results of their activities may extend far beyond any one individual example of resistance. These activists may effectively block their opponent's will and make it impossible for them to carry out their plans even with the use of repressive measures by demonstrating they will not be coerced through fear and violence. Methods of nonviolent intervention may be used defensively to block an opponent's assault through maintaining independent initiative, cultural patterns, and institutions. They may also be used offensively to bring forward activists’ demands directly into the opponent's own domain, even without provocation.
A nonviolent group that continues to struggle and maintains nonviolent discipline in the face of repression may also gain sympathy and support as reprisals increase and the opposition’s regime demonstrates its brutality. If populations removed from the immediate conflict show increased support for these victims of repression, this may lead to significant political and economic pressures on the regime. The opposition's own agents, police, and soldiers may begin to doubt the legitimacy of their own policies and provoke internal dissent. If violent repression increases the ranks of nonviolent activists and inspires defiance among the opponent's supporters, it will simultaneously demonstrate the limits of the regime’s control and further undermine their support. This is Gene Sharp’s "political jiu-jitsu" at work.
Sharp’s 198 nonviolent methods provide a critical reference point for people struggling for democratic rights through nonviolent action. Some methods are fundamentally symbolic actions of protest, some involve a specific type of noncooperation, and others are direct interventions that provoke a conflict situation. The classification system organizes the extensive and often overlooked range of nonviolent methods while revealing important distinctions and classes that exist within them. However, the 50 year old listing is not exhaustive nor should it be regarded as rigid. New forms of nonviolent action may be developed or improvised in the course of struggle. The reverse strike, for example, in which people work despite being forbidden to do so, was only about 20 years old at the time Sharp's listing was published.
