Some foreign states will act against a dictatorship only to gain their own economic, political, or military control over the country.

As soon as you choose to fight with violence you're choosing to fight against your opponents best weapons and you have to be smarter than that.

So, he reasoned, if you can identify the sources of a government's power - people working in civil service, police and judges, even the army - then you know what a dictatorship depends on for its existence.

Dictatorships usually exist primarily because of the internal power distribution in the home country. The population and society are too weak to cause the dictatorship serious problems, wealth and power are concentrated in too few hands. Although dictatorships may benefit from or be somewhat weakened by international actions, their continuation is dependent primarily on internal factors.

Whatever promises offered by dictators in any negotiated settlement, no one should ever forget that the dictators may promise anything to secure submission from their democratic opponents, and then brazenly violate those same agreements.

Nonviolent struggle is the most powerful means available to those struggling for freedom.

Dictators are not in the business of allowing elections that could remove them from their thrones.