Book launch: Richard Sandbrook’s The Citizen’s Guide to Nonviolent Defence

For Canada and other middle and smaller powers facing predatory super-powers, nonviolent defence (NVD) is a strategic concept whose time has arrived.

Publishing on November 3, 2026

Douglas & McIntyre

The stench of imperialism is again in the air. How do middle and smaller powers defend themselves when the potential aggressor is a nearby superpower? That is Canada’s conundrum today, one that European countries fearful of Russia’s ambitions equally share. A solely military response to superpower aggression would not only fail, but also be devastating in casualties and destruction. There is, however, an alternative hiding in full sight: nonviolent civilian defence.

NVD, operating in joint deployment with the armed forces, can not only fend off annexation and vassal-state status via hybrid warfare but also rebuild networks of trust and cooperation at the local level. The ultimate goal of civilian defence, acting as a voluntary, decentralized and nonpartisan movement, is to end this time of monsters by championing human security, in the belief that human rights and peace are closely connected.

Richard Sandbrook is vice-president of Science for Peace, emeritus professor of political science at the U of T, co-founder and co-coordinator of the Canadian Coalition for Nonviolent Defence and author or editor of 14 books.

Author statement: “The impetus of this book was Trump’s verbal and trade attacks against Canada, beginning in 2025. Canada is vulnerable owing to continental economic integration and the integration of its small armed forces with the US military in NORAD and NATO. Moreover, the external threat is unlikely to disappear with the end of the Trump presidency. For Canada, the most efficient and effective defence is joint deployment of nonviolent civilian defence and the armed forces, each operating within its own geographical sphere. Nonviolence defence would also reinforce community and deepen democracy. Canadians and others can draw on the long history of nonviolent defence to build human security in a peaceful and sustainable

world.”

 – Richard Sandbrook, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of Toronto and Vice-President of Science for Peace