why nonviolence works

the more i study the teachings of Jesus, the more I understand the movement of an upside down kingdom. the first shall be last, the poor shall be rich,give up your life to gain it, the list goes on. Jesus also had some challenging teachings when it comes to the way we approach violence, revenge, justice.  Turn the other cheek may not just apply to us when we are personally wronged. It may not just apply to our group of people we identify with when wronged ( whether it be race or religion or gender). It may be what we are called to in the largest corporate context. I have heard it said that it is simply illogical to believe that violence can bring about peace. Yet I look around and see this illogical approach is by and large the most used method for attempting peace and liberation in countries. Many of those i have talked with about this see nonviolent movements as unrealistic idealology, or fantasy of utopia that will never be. Studying this a bit further i stumbled across a study done by Erica Chenoweth, a student at Wesleyan University. Her work is a statistical look at modern nonviolent movements and what the success rates are of those campaigns. There is a slideshow summary of her findings here.  If you have a lot of time or really want to research the topic here is her entire study .