THE NONVIOLENT PRINCE

Humankind creates its own identities by separating itself from "other" living and non-living beings. This practice allows violence to be justified such that it becomes a normal course of action which basically constitutes the violent paradigm. But the possibility of nuclear war serves as Kuhn's "anomaly" to indicate that violence is no longer justified as a viable method for self-preservation. To solve this puzzle, one needs to think in a nonviolent paradigm where methods other than violence are used. To provide nonviolent alternatives to the ruled does not necessarily result in nonviolent conflict resolution. Therefore, within the nonviolent paradigm, this study is an attempt to provide the rulers with nonviolent alternatives because they are normally the initiators of violence. The metaphor "the prince" is used because it strongly connotes the ideas of practicality and reliance on one's own capability to cope with the situation instead of reliance on external sources. The Nonviolent Prince assumes a book form and contains thirteen chapters. These chapters suggest ways to deal with potential oppositions which are the elites, the oppressed or the people and international opponents by using the three basic techniques: conversion, persuasion and nonviolent coercion. These techniques are proposed with special consideration of the time dimension in politics. Urgency or immediacy exists. At such times, where violence is normally called for, nonviolent alternatives are mostly needed. To complement The Nonviolent Prince, two critiques are written. The first critique gives general criticisms from ideological, teleological, methodological and theoretical perspectives. The second critique is a reconstruction of The Nonviolent Prince by placing it in a wider and proper perspective within the web of meaning that is constituted by theories and praxis of violence and nonviolence alike. Finally, it is concluded that what is mostly needed at present are nonviolent political scientists who are sensitive enough to see the normative character of the discipline of political science and are committed to the creation of nonviolent alternatives.