Check out this recent book on the effectiveness of active nonviolence, recommended by CCP executive director Janet Chisholm and board member Elliott Adams: Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, by Erica Chenoweth & Maria J. Stephan (Columbia University Press, 2011).
Publisher's description: For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results, even in Iran, Burma, the Philippines, and the Palestinian Territories.
From www.veteransforpeace.org: Yesterday South Korea stopped two US veterans who had served to defend Korea, including CCP trainer Elliott Adams, from entering the country. After two days of travel these US citizens were left in no-man's-land between Korea and China. They had come back to Korea at the request of the people, to support the people of a small island (Jeju) off the south end of Korea. They had been struggling for months to protect their culture and their way of life. Men and women have used their bodies to block giant cranes bent on destruction. At risk are the sacred rocks of Gangjeong, the fresh water springs in the rocks, and the coral reefs that support the island's marine fishery and endangered species. The area is linked to three UNESCO World Natural Heritage sites, nine UNESCO Geo-Parks, and it is designated as a Global Biosphere Reserve. But all this and the life on Jeju island is to be destroyed or put at risk for one more naval base.
I spend a fair amount of time volunteering on the national board of Creating a Culture of Peace. It is the parent organization of the nonviolence training program that over 30 folks from my congregation, Robbinsdale United Church of Christ have attended. One of the unique pieces of this training program is that it is both spiritually grounded and interfaith in its approach. During the training each participant comes out with a plan of nonviolent action that can be accomplished in order to build a more compassionate and just culture around us. These past several months in the news, many of us have been following the Occupy Wall Street Movement. As a trainer of the strategies and techniques of nonviolent action, I have been paying close attention and learning from the process that is happening on the ground in New York City and around the world. There have been trainings going on every day to help new folks understand the principles and practices of nonviolence, and people are committing to the power of nonviolence and love in the face of the institutions that focus more on competition and greed.
Creating a Culture of Peace (CCP) is a nationwide program for community-based peacemaking. The innovative design of CCP provides a holistic and practical foundation in spiritually-grounded active nonviolence. Participants come to recognize their own power for making personal and social changes without violence and improve their skills for respectful engagement with opponents, instead of confrontation that polarizes and demonizes. 
