ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a path for coping with existing conflict and one for coping with imminent conflict. The paths involve, respectively, alternative defense and nonviolent resistance. These two approaches are very similar in some respects. Advocates of the extreme form of alternate defense visualize citizens defending themselves and their nation in highly decentralized fashion. Slightly different variants of this image emphasize guerrilla warfare or some kind of semiorganized citizens' army or militia. The result in the event of an invasion would be roughly the same. Advocates of nonviolent action make the point that the issue of preparation makes any simple comparison between the effectiveness of violent and nonviolent approaches problematic. Persons making such comparisons tend to forget that the successes of the military methods they praise were the result of thorough, systematic, and expensive advance preparation.
