Introduction: The film “Toppling a Dictator” in an inspirational documentary about the peaceful revolution in Serbia in 1999. The bulldozer revolution in Serbia inspired the so-called “color revolutions” of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where massive street protests after disputed elections led to the overthrow of authoritarian leaders (Dudouet, 2008, p. 9). The strategies of activists in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus have many parallels with the current “Arab Spring”. This article will analyze York's documentary, Bringing Down a Dictator, in terms of nonviolent theory and peaceful social revolution. The role of the information revolution in such movements will be discussed next. In closing, comparisons will be made on how the above-mentioned concepts apply to the Arab Spring. Bulldozer Revolution: How Serbia Brought Down a Dictator: The film “Bringing Down a Dictator” documents the defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000. This monumental event was accomplished not by force of arms, as many expected, but rather with a mass nonviolent movement of mass civil disobedience. Trained in nonviolent action, Otpor launched a unified political opposition, fought electoral fraud, and systematically won the loyalty of the police and army. When Milosevic refused to accept defeat at the polls, the people called a general strike. Hundreds of thousands of Serbs flocked to the capital from across the country to seize the federal parliament and force Milosevic to resign. The film highlights the pillars used by dictators to stay in power and frames them as areas of voluntariness that can be exploited by the people. As Otpor leader Srdja Popovic stated, “The people t...... at the center of the paper......nes” (Harb, 2011). References: Aron, R. (2009). Peace and war: a theory of international relations. New Brunswick, NJ [ua: Transaction.Barash, D. P., & Webel, C. (2002). Peace and conflict studies. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.Carroll, W. K., & Ratner, R. S. (1999). Media strategies and political projects: a comparative study of social movements. The Canadian Journal of Sociology, 24(1), 1-34.Dudouet, V. (2008). Nonviolent resistance and conflict transformations in power asymmetries (Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management, publication). Berlin: Berghof. Nye, J. S. (2003). Understanding International Conflict: An Introduction to Theory and History. New York: Longman.Sharp, G., & Paulson, J. (2005). Waging nonviolent struggle: 20th century practice and 21st century potential. Boston: Extending Horizons Books.
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