Abstract

On February 15, 2003, millions of people around the world protested the imminent invasion of Iraq. These protests came after a wave of contention that started in 2002. About ten million people protested in more than six hundred cities around the globe. This was the largest transnational protest campaign in world history. ¹ As such, the slogan “The World Says No To War” was well chosen. Despite the remarkable size of the protests, war was not prevented. Little more than a month later, on March 20, the United States—supported by the “Coalition of the Willing”—started an armed intervention against the regime of Saddam Hussein. As the war raged, protests continued. Peace movements around the world persisted in their efforts to stop the war. Large-scale mobilization continued with tens and hundreds of thousands of people participating in antiwar rallies and in events that took place each year around the anniversary of the war. ²