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Articles

The Success & Failure of Non-Violence

Yoav Tenembaum asks when a policy of non-violence is feasible.

Non-violence as a policy is based on the moral postulate that the use of force is inherently abhorrent, and further, seeks to link non-violence to concrete political objectives. The question raised in this article refers, first and foremost, to the viability of a policy of non-violence, rather than to its absolute moral merits; but to be sure, the three most prominent examples of advocacy of a policy of non-violence in modern history were moved by moral convictions. The three are Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and the pacifist movements of the twentieth century. Martin Luther King’s policy represents the best-known example of a non-violent policy in a situation where a segment of the population within a sovereign state is deeply opposed to that state’s official policy or to internally-upheld social conditions.

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