Stellan Vinthagen is associate professor of sociology and a scholar-activist, affiliated with the Departmentof Social and Behavioural Studies, University West, and School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg. He is a Council Member of War Resisters International, academic advisor to the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), and co-founder of the Resistance Studies Network (www.resistancestudies.org). His research is focused on resistance, power, social movements, nonviolent action, conflict transformation and social change. He has since 1980 been an educator, organizer and activist in several countries, and has participated in more than 30 nonviolent civil disobedience actions, for which he has served in total more than one year in prison.