Albert Einstein Institution

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The Albert Einstein Institution is a non-profit organization that specializes in the study of the methods of non-violent resistance in conflicts and to explore its policy potential and communicate these findings through print and other media, translations, conferences, consultations, and workshops. The institution's founder and senior scholar, Gene Sharp, is widely regarded as the foremost writer on strategic nonviolent struggle. Albert Einstein Institution "is committed to the defense of freedom, democracy, and the reduction of political violence through the use of nonviolent action."

To further this mission, the Institution has supported research projects, actively consulted with resistance and pro-democracy groups from Burma, Thailand, Egypt, Tibet, Serbia, Equatorial Guinea, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and elsewhere, and worked to publicize the power and potential of nonviolent struggle around the world through educational materials, scholarly writings, workshops, and the media.

The Albert Einstein Institution was founded in 1987 and operates out of a small office in Dr. Sharp's home in East Boston, Massachusetts. The current executive director is Jamila Raqib.

[edit] Criticism

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has accused the Albert Einstein Institution of being behind a "soft coup" attempt in Venezuela,"^[1] though the institution's limited contacts with opposition elements in Venezuela have been restricted to providing generic information regarding the dynamics and history of nonviolent action and did not give any specific advice to Chavez opponents or instigate any actions against the Venezuelan government. Similarly, a number of Marxist critics, such as French writer Thierry Meyssan has accused the institution of being part of CIA subversion efforts,^[2] though there is no evidence of any such collaboration and those who have worked with Dr. Sharp and the Albert Einstein Institution have dismissed such accusations.^[3] Except for two small grants in the early 1990s to translate some scholarly writings of Dr. Sharp, the Institution has never received any government funding, nor does it take ideological sides in conflicts.

Despite such accusations from the far left of a bias toward U.S. imperialism, Albert Einstein Institution founder and senior scholar Gene Sharp began his career as the personal assistant to the prominent radical pacifist and labor organizer A.J. Muste and spent two years in prison for draft resistance during the Korean War. His work has inspired generations of peace, environmental and social justice activists in the United States and around the world. Furthermore, the Albert Einstein Institution has funded research and educational activities for scores of left-leaning scholars and activists, including Palestinian feminist Souad Dajani, Rutgers sociologist Kurt Schock, Common Courage press co-founder Greg Bates, Israeli human rights activist Edy Kaufman, Kent State Peace Studies professor Patrick Coy, Nigerian human rights activist Uche Ewelukwa, Bradford University Peace Studies professor Paul Rogers, and University of San Francisco professor Stephen Zunes, among others, all of whom have been outspoken critics of U.S. foreign policy.