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Global Nonviolent Action Database (Swarthmore)

Summary

Swarthmore College’s structured database of nonviolent campaigns with actors, methods, outcomes, and sources. Alternative labelling for nv-database.

Body

The Global Nonviolent Action Database, hosted by Swarthmore College, is the canonical structured archive of historical and contemporary nonviolent campaigns [source: global-nonviolent-db]. This Wiki page is an alias for the nv-database source page; both point at the same URL (nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu) and the same Swarthmore College database [source: global-nonviolent-db]. The alias exists because some references - particularly older academic citations and peace-studies programmes - cite the resource by its full institutional name (Global Nonviolent Action Database) while newer internal links use the shortened nv-database slug [source: global-nonviolent-db].

Coverage, depth, and use cases are identical to nv-database: searches by country, method, outcome, and actor; structured case write-ups with actors, methods, targets, dates, locations, outcomes, and primary sources; a homepage tally that puts the catalogue at 1,200+ cases across 100+ countries and 400+ years [source: global-nonviolent-db]. Treat as link-only; the database is a synthesis of many primary sources, not a primary source itself, so cite for case-level claims and link to the underlying primary records in nv-database. [source: global-nonviolent-db]

A campaigner should prefer this alias slug when they want to be explicit about which institution is the source of a claim (for grant narratives or footnotes that trace authority); prefer nv-database when the slug needs to read as a short link in a list of sources. Both wikilinks resolve to the same database. [source: global-nonviolent-db]

Use it for

Finding a precedent case; comparing methods across campaigns; researching a specific movement.

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Last verified: 2026-07-10