Ukraine's Hidden Resistance - Amber French Griette and The Change Agent Podcast

Amber French-Griette leads the Organization for Nonviolent Movements in France and has spent more than a decade studying how ordinary people defend freedom without weapons. In this episode she breaks down the discipline behind that work, what over 420 documented nonviolent tactics look like in practice, and why Ukraine's civilian resistance is not a footnote to its military campaign but a second channel of power operating alongside it. She talks through the inaugural issue of the journal Across Fault Lines, published in partnership with Columbia University Press, which makes the case that Europe is leaving real power on the table by not understanding what Ukraine's civic shield is actually doing. The conversation also goes into what leadership feels like eight months into building an organization at the edge of a conflict, working across defense circles where these ideas are still far from mainstream. Hit play if you want a different frame for understanding what is happening in Ukraine.

00:00 Introduction

00:55 How the war in Ukraine reshaped ONM's work

02:34 Defining strategic nonviolent conflict and unarmed civilian defense

05:21 Ukraine's civilian resistance beyond the battlefield

10:16 The 420 documented tactics and how they function

17:25 Preserving Ukrainian cultural heritage as frontline defense

21:14 Across Fault Lines: the inaugural journal and its arguments

28:23 Oleksandra Matviichuk and the human dimension of the war

33:23 Partnering with the countering violent extremism world

47:01 Leading an early-stage organization with a large mission

54:52 How ONM measures impact and what success looks like

Amber French-Griette LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-french-griette

Amber French-Griette at ICNC: https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/contributor/amber-french/

Organization for Nonviolent Movements: https://nonviolent-movements.org/

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Song: Healed

Artist: Cody Martin

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