Protest and Policy

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs program on Security and Global Affairs presents David Cortright and “Protest and Policy.”

An examination of how activist movements influence policy, based on decades of experience in peace movement organizing and extensive research on nonviolent social change, civil resistance and peace history. Lessons from the Iraq antiwar movement, the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and the Vietnam antiwar movement, reviewing their policy impacts, large and small, and identifying the strategies and tactics that account for these outcomes. The focus is on questions of agency, to provide guidance for more effective social mobilization and policy advocacy, applied in campaigns today to save democracy and halt the nuclear arms race. The presentation will draw from his new book Protest and Policy in the Iraq, Nuclear Freeze and Vietnam Peace Movements (Cambridge University Press, Elements, July 2025).

Organized by Shinkyu “James” Lee. 
In person event.

For more information on the Rohaytn Center for Global Affairs and the New Frontiers podcast series, visit their website.