Senior Fellow
shaazka.b@gmail.com
Shaazka Beyerle is a senior fellow with the Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center, George Mason University. She is a researcher, writer, and educator in nonviolent action, focusing on anti-corruption, accountability, democratic governance, peacebuilding, gender, and human rights. She was previously a senior research advisor in the Program on Nonviolent Action at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). In 2017 she was a USIP Jennings Randolph senior fellow and was a nonresident fellow at the former Center for Transatlantic Relations, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. From December 2015 to June 2017, she was the lead researcher for a World Bank-Nordic Trust Fund project entitled, “Citizen Participation is a Human Right: A Human Rights-Based Approach to the World Bank’s Citizen Engagement Mandate.”
She has taught: a graduate course on Nonviolent Collective Action at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; a course on Human Rights for the Global Policy Fellows Program at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University; a graduate course on Nonviolent Civil Resistance at the University for Peace in Costa Rica; and twice at the Transparency International Summer School on Integrity. In 2014 she testified at a US Congress Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe hearing on combating corruption in the OSCE region.
Ms. Beyerle speaks frequently at conferences, workshops, universities and webinars, including at: Columbia Law School Center for Public Integrity; Council of Europe World Forum for Democracy; Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy; Geneva Peace Week; George Washington University Law School; Global Partnership for Social Accountability Global Partners Forum; Harvard University; Hong Kong University Law School; International Anti-Corruption Conferences (IACC); International Studies Association; ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network; PeaceCon; Seoul Democracy Forum; Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development; Third Conference of States Parties of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC); Transparency International Summer School on Integrity (Lithuania); University of Bologna, University of Sydney; University of Yangon; and the World Bank Fragility Forum.
Ms. Beyerle twice served as an elected Coordinating Committee member of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) Civil Society Coalition, most recently until May 2022. She is on the Advisory Board of RESPOND (Rescuing Democracy from Political Corruption in Digital Societies), University of Bologna; a member of Transparency International’s ASK (Anti-Corruption Solutions and Knowledge Programme) Expert Network; and a Friend of the International State Crime Initiative (Queen Mary University-London, Harvard University, University of Hull); and an Editorial Board member of the State Crime journal. She earned an M.A. in international relations from George Washington University and a B.A. from the University of Toronto.
Selected publications
Beyerle, Shaazka, 2023. Supporting Nonviolent Action and Movements: A Guide for International Actors, Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace.
Beyerle, Shaazka and Sayed Ikram Afzali. 2022. Enabling Civil Society and Social Movements – Chapter in Untapped Power: Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion for Conflict and Development, Carla Koppell (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Aceron, Joy; Angela Bailey; Shaazka Beyerle; Jonathan Fox. 2017. Citizen Action Against Corruption. Learning Exchange Report, Accountability Research Center, Washington, DC: American University.
Beyerle, Shaazka. 2014. Curtailing Corruption: People Power for Accountability and Justice. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner (downloadable version and translations available here, including Spanish).
Beyerle, Shaazka; David Bulman; Marco Larizza; Berenike Schott. 2017. Citizens as Drivers of Change: How Citizens Practice Human Rights to Engage with the State and Promote Transparency and Accountability. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group.
Beyerle, Shaazka. 2015. Freedom from Corruption: A Curriculum for People Power Movements, Campaigns and Civic Initiatives.
La Ring, Khin Sandar Nyunt, Nist Pianchupat and Shaazka Beyerle. 2020. Nonviolent Action in Myanmar: Challenges and Lessons for Civil Society and Donors. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace.
Beyerle, Shaazka. 2019. Brazil’s Digital Resistance Against Corruption, Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding Policy Brief No. 40, Toda Peace Institute, Japan.
Beyerle, Shaazka. 2016. Challenges of Democracy: Corruption – Chapter in Challenges of Democracy in the European Union and Its Neighbors, Aylin Unver Noi and Sasha Toperich (eds.), Washington, DC: Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University.
Beyerle, Shaazka. 2015. People Power Versus the Corruption-Impunity-Authoritarian Nexus – Chapter in Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback?, Mathew Burrows and Maria Stephan (eds.), Washington, DC: Atlantic Council.
Beyerle, Shaazka. 2013. We Want Freedom: Nonviolent Conflict to Curb Corruption – Chapter in Conflict Transformation: Essays on Methods of Nonviolence, Rhea A. DuMont, Tom H. Hastings and Emiko Noma (eds.), Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing (this chapter includes a case study from Guatemala)
Beyerle, Shaazka. 2013. We Want Freedom: Nonviolent Conflict to Curb Corruption – Chapter in Conflict Transformation: Essays on Methods of Nonviolence, Rhea A. DuMont, Tom H. Hastings and Emiko Noma (eds.), Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing
Selected articles
Beyerle, Shaazka. 2024. Supporting Nonviolent Action When You’re New to the Movement Space, Minds of the Movement series, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, June 14.
Lewanika, McDonald and Shaazka Beyerle. 2021. What’s Next for the Summit for Democracy: Translating High-Level Talk to Grassroots Action, Summit for Democracy, December 23.
Beyerle, Shaazka and Layla Hashemi. 2022. How People Power Can Counter Corruption, Special issue on Combatting Corruption in Democracies, 360info, Monash University, December 6.
Beyerle, Shaazka. 2019. Six Takeaways for the Next Decade of People Power, The Olive Branch Blog, US Institute of Peace, December.
Beyerle, Shaazka and Davin O’Regan. 2019. Overcoming Hurdles to Citizen Activism for Fiscal Governance, Fiscal Futures Blog Series, Transparency and Accountability Initiative, April 17.
Olteanu, Tina and Shaazka Beyerle. 2018. The Romanian People versus Corruption: The Paradoxical Nexus of Protest and Adaptation, Partecipazione e Conflitto (PACO): The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies, special issue on “Anti-corruption from below: Social movements and societal accountability.
Beyerle, Shaazka and Miranda Rivers. 2017. To Curb Corruption and Violence, the ‘Sandwich Effect’, The Olive Branch Blog, US Institute of Peace, November 6.
Beyerle, Shaazka and Tina Olteanu. 2016. How Romanian People Power Took on Mining and Corruption, The Democracy Lab-ForeignPolicy.com, November 17.
Ackerman, Peter and Shaazka Beyerle. 2016. Lessons from Civil Resistance for the Battle Against Global Financial Corruption, Diogenes SAGE, January.
Stephan, Maria and Shaazka Beyerle. 2015. How to Stop Extremism Before It Starts, ForeignPolicy.com, March 17.
Ackerman, Peter and Beyerle, Shaazka. 2015. La Résistance Civile Contre La Corruption Financière, Diogene, special issue on Nonviolence, January.