Talk:Gene Sharp

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Any relation to Zerna Sharp?

  • (Very funny). Hey, I've searched everywhere for the date of birth of this amazing human being and can't find it. Does anyone have a clue? (Alpheus 21:45, 12 November 2005 (UTC))

[edit] POV tag

This comes across as a propaganda piece written by someone associated with that particular organisation. Hence the POV tag has been inserted and will remain until someone makes an attempt to clarify who or what this person is in a more balanced article. Fourohfour 11:19, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, some of the "colorful revolutions", like Otpor's revolution in Serbia and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, are said to have been funded by Western sources. That doesn't mean that they were "fake people power", necessarily, but there's some engineering going on in there.

But that doesn't make Gene Sharp a villain: he's still the guy who wrote that book that inspired those colorful revolutions...it seems to me that before you slap a POV tag on an article, you should have a specific and informed criticism of your own. Katsam7:04, 10 December 2005

I didn't accuse him of being a villain, so don't suggest otherwise.
I said the article came across as very uncritical of the guy, like a promotional piece written by a supporter. Maybe he did inspire them. However, I'd like to see something that came across as *trying* to be more neutral than the article currently is. That was the extent of my criticism. Fourohfour 13:54, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
I put in some criticisms of Sharp and took out the POV tag.Katsam 08:46, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
Fair enough. Here's a couple of links saying Gene Sharp and his Albert Einstein foundation are anticommunist agitators with links to the CIA. Some see the "color revolutions" as "soft coup d'etats", and Sharp's organization has advised not only the Serbian/Ukrainian/Georgian oppositions, but also the folks who tried to overthrow Hugo Chavez...

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Albert_Einstein_Institution http://www.voltairenet.org/article30032.html That's a little more balance, no? Do you think that voltairenet article is reputable enough to count as a source here? Katsam 2:05, 12 December 2005

Well, the article uses "weasel words" such as "some people" (who?) "believe" (x,y,z) to support assertions that Sharp is associated with (DoD, anti-Communist movements, you name it). The voltairenet article, while interesting and filled with data, is unstubstantiated quackery. So there seem to be some POV problems here. --216.135.36.37 06:17, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't think anyone links Sharp to the Department of Defense. But some of those assertions are substantiable: for instance, I found a link to a Reuters article discussing the AEI training Venezuelan opposition to Hugo Chavez (I inserted the link but it's on a page called burmanet, you'll have to scroll down).
I also found an article in Peace Magazine that talked about how the Serbian nonviolent youth group Otpor was trained and funded by the AEI and NED. It wasn't entirely clear from Peace Magazine whether the NED was funding the AEI or just funding Otpor, but a quick search yielded a link to the AEI's archive at Swarthmore where it's visible that the AEI has repeatedly sought donations from the NED.
So I don't agree that the criticism is POV, unless you can make a case that the majority of Sharp's work hasn't focused on the nonviolent toppling of Communist governments. Katsam


[edit] Sharp's Central Theory

I have a problem with the way Sharp's central theory in his book Politics of Nonviolent Action has been described. What is said about this threory is not, as it exists, incorrect but it is not actually a picture of his threories on political power and action which are the central problems the book addresses. Right now the description laid out in the article merely describes a possible product or outcome of the application of Sharp's thesis but it is not the thesis itself. I am going to provide a basic outline of these theories to clarify this crucial distinction.

It's fine to mention that Sharp's theory resembles Hume's, but I think to put the whole quote in is a little bit of overkill (considering this is Gene Sharp's entry and not Hume's)Katsam 09:44, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Venezuela

Somebody keeps removing references to Sharp's contribution to the attempted coup of 2002 in Venezuela. I guess unlike Serbia and the Ukraine, that's not one he wants advertised, huh? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.245.79.81 (talk) 03:50, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

You should assume good faith, although your cynicism is understandable. In reality, the reasoning is more complex. In an interview to Peace Magazine, Sharp claims to have never been to Venezuela, and that he does not know much about it; in other words, implying that he could not have contributed to the coup. Thus any claims about his involvement with the 2002 coup need to be referenced with credible sources, otherwise the libel issue arises.
See also Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons.--Riurik(discuss) 06:13, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
Ok, thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.243.112.204 (talk) 23:44, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
Gene Sharp didn't go to Venezuela in 2002, but the head of Sharp's thinktank (Robert Helvey) went to train Venezuelan dissidents in 2003. Here's part of a Reuters article about it:

US democracy expert teaches Venezuelan opposition By Pascal Fletcher CARACAS, Venezuela, April 30 (Reuters) - Retired U.S. army colonel Robert Helvey has trained pro-democracy activists in several parts of the world so he knows something about taking on military regimes and political strongmen. Now he is imparting his skills in Venezuela, invited by opponents of President Hugo Chavez who accuse the leftist leader of ruling like a dictator in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. ... After initially declining to answer questions, Helvey, a former U.S. military attache in Burma and now a consultant with the private U.S. Albert Einstein Institution that promotes non-violent action in conflicts, told Reuters non-violence was the key to the tactics he taught.

I've posted links to that article before but someone keeps taking them down. Katsam (talk) 03:34, 16 March 2008 (UTC)