This paper reviews the seminal theories of social psychology which have guided scholarship on inter-group conflicts and describes how these theories have been used by conflict resolution practitioners to design Track Two diplomacy initiatives among citizens in conflict zones. The authors hope that such a review will provide scholars of conflict resolution and international politics with a better understanding of how complex social theories are adapted for use in the applied world, and how gaps between theory and practice can be identified and addressed. The paper begins with an overview of three of the main theoretical contributions of social psychology to the problem of inter-group conflict: social identity theory, stereotyping and prejudice, and contact theory. We then review how these theories have been applied by conflict resolution specialists in international and ethnic conflicts as they have sought to moderate intergroup hostilities in conflict zones. The paper concludes with an analysis of the gaps between theory and practice, namely: theory of change gap, transfer strategies gap, and unit of analysis gap. Finally, based on the reviewed social psychology research, the article makes policy recommendations about how these gaps between theory and practice can be narrowed.
If the world of crisis is changing, it is crucial to understand how policymakers perceive these new, transboundary threats. This article explores how policymakers made sense of such crises in 81 cases. The findings indicate that how much time urgency and surprise the policymakers perceived accompanied a transboundary threat helped to shape the nature of their decision-making process and how they managed the crisis. The data suggest that researchers and practitioners can gain an idea of how a crisis is likely to be managed by ascertaining how policymakers are viewing the triggering event.
Since the collapse of the Oslo peace process and the violence that followed, many scholars have reflected upon the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Most of this analysis has focused on official negotiations without considering the substantial role that unofficial peace efforts have played in peacebuilding, both prior to and after Oslo. This article, in contrast, seeks to better understand the application of “track two” diplomacy to the Israeli–Palestinian case. It reports on a self‐reflection effort by numerous Israeli–Palestinian peace practitioners to better understand what has worked, what has not, and how new initiatives could be more effectively organized and carried out in the future. The research presented is based on an inventory of seventy‐nine track two projects that occurred between Israelis and Palestinians between 1992 and 2004, personal interviews with many of those who organized and oversaw these projects, and two focus group meetings that brought together a total of forty practitioners. In this article, we seek to better understand two issues: (1) how track two initiatives have changed in scope, organization, and intent; and (2) how track two practitioners have sought to disseminate their work beyond the participants of those initiatives. Our findings present an overall picture of the Israeli–Palestinian second track practice and identify a number of trends and common types of practice. Among the trends we have identified are the following: during the peace process years, more track two initiatives were undertaken with elite/professional participants than with representatives of the grassroots, but in the subsequent decade‐and‐a‐half, Israeli–Palestinian grassroots, track two initiatives gradually replaced senior‐level track two exchanges; most of the grassroots initiatives we studied were relationship focused, whereas those involving elite participants are outcome focused; the track two community subscribes to a set of theoretical propositions about which conditions and contexts facilitate the transmission of track two insights and ideas to the political process, but these propositions have yet to be validated; and track two specialists do little strategic planning about ways to most effectively transfer track two insights and ideas to the political process. Our research also identified four distinct, but not mutually exclusive, approaches to practice: the psychological, the constructivist, the capacity building, and the realistic interest.
Angle and energy distributions are reported for gamma rays near the top of the atmosphere for energies of 2–25 MeV and for zenith angles of 0°–50° (downward moving) and 130°–180° (upward moving). These distributions were obtained with the University of California, Riverside (UCR) double Compton scatter gamma ray telescope flown on a balloon to 3.0 g/cm² residual atmosphere from Palestine, Texas, on May 13, 1975 (geomagnetic cutoff: 4.5 GV). Growth curves from 3.4 to 100 g/cm² of residual atmosphere are used to determine the downward‐moving atmospheric fluxes. Results are given for six energy intervals from 2–25 MeV and for five angle intervals from 0°–50°. The downward fluxes are in reasonable agreement with those of Schönfelder and Lichti (1975, 1976) at the lower energies and with those of Kinzer et al. (1974) at the higher energies, where our respective data overlap. The shape of the angular distribution is consistent with that of Lichti et al. (1975) and Thompson (1974) at higher energies. The absolute fluxes of upward moving gamma rays from 130°–170° at 4.2 g/cm² are in agreement with the semiempirical values of Ling (1975) but increase away from the vertical contrary to his predictions. Integrating over zenith angles of 10°–40° and 140°–170°, our ratios of upward moving to downward moving gamma ray fluxes are 12 ± 1 and 9 ± 2 for 3–10 and 10–25 MeV, respectively, in agreement with the theoretical model of Graser and Schönfelder (1977).
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