Who We Are

Mission

The Observatory develops research, training, and policy tools to strengthen civilian resistance, crisis response, and societal resilience to counter hybrid threats and other emerging challenges in Ukraine and beyond.

Our tradition, our principles

Our tradition is grounded in the theory and praxis of strategic nonviolent action against colonialism, authoritarianism, occupation and other forms of coercion. Drawing lessons from the historical experiences of civil resistance movements, we aspire to contribute to the development, promotion, and amplification of civil resistance as a transformative and effective strategy to confront emerging global challenges.

Within this context, the Ukrainian experience represents a turning point in understanding the capacity of civil society to respond to large-scale invasion. It demonstrates the strategic role of decentralised networks of local power in responding to emerging crises and hybrid threats. From this experience, important lessons can be drawn for the development of civilian-based defence systems, understood as national defence doctrines that integrate civilian response and preparedness in coordination with other state actors, with the capacity to confront new forms of modern warfare.

Our approach is grounded in the methodological and applied framework of  the Democratic Resistance and Resilience (DR2 Framework)

• Resistance: rooted in the logic of nonviolent conflict, civil resistance is a civilian method of struggle that employs political, economic, social, and psychological tactics to undermine the power, legitimacy, and strategies of an adversary without the use of violence and against violence.
• Resilience: civil resistance and resilience reinforce one another through a symbiotic relationship. Civil resistance both emerges from and contributes to societal resilience, understood as a set of adaptive capacities rooted in social cohesion, inclusive socioeconomic development, community competence, and strong, trusted information and communication systems within society.
• Democratic Transformation: as an inclusive process of mass mobilisation, democratic resistance creates the conditions and spaces for individual and collective transformation. It seeks to build people’s power and sovereignty within communities in order to advance democracy, liberation, and self-governance.

Partners’ organisations

Centre United Actions, Center for Civil Liberties, Youth Up, Youth Platform, Ukrainian Volunteer Service, AMES, The Peacebuilding School in Ukraine, Chesno, Factor Bureau, Novact, Corridors, ONM, Pax (network of civil resistance), Nonviolent Peaceforce.