Almost everyone is against nuclear war, but not everyone agrees on how to prevent it. In the United States, two general policy approaches have emerged: (a) the "peace through strength" (PTS) approach, which emphasizes the development of nuclear weapons to achieve a nuclear capability that will deter attack or blackmail and facilitate negotiations on arms control among nations, and (b) the "peace through cooperation" (PTC) approach, which emphasizes the use of conflict resolution techniques to reduce international tensions and promote trust and cooperation among nations. Many people believe these two approaches are incompatible. There is antipathy by proponents of each approach toward the other.These two policy approaches reflect different Weltanschauungs: world views based on different assumptions about human nature and society that come to different conclusions not only about the prevention of nuclear war, but also about relations among people, institutions, and nations. To illustrate the impact of the PTS and the PTC perspectives on education, research, and training about international conflict and nuclear issues, I will briefly describe and compare these two Weltanschauungs and then discuss the reactions of proponents of each view to Choices, a junior high school curriculum on conflict and nuclear war (Union of Concerned Scientists, Massachusetts Teachers Association, and the National Education Association, 1983) and to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), established recently by Congress. Finally, I will suggest how psychologists can contribute to a better understanding of the issues raised by these two world views.
The traditional Western diplomatic approach to international negotiation is compared with an intercultural approach. The implicit assumptions underlying the universal “culture” of diplomacy and the American values in which these assumptions are grounded are discussed. Individual levels of cultural awareness including cultural chauvinism, ethnocentrism, tolerance, minimization, and cultural understanding are described, and their influence on the interpersonal processes of international negotiation are illustrated through a consideration of the Iraq/U.S. diplomatic meetings in Geneva in 1991. Finally, the potential of the intercultural approach is discussed.
Because the history of Division 9 (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues) is so rich and diverse, I have chosen to provide some information on most of the contributions for which I could find records, rather than leave out some contributions in order to elaborate others. Even so, I would judge that I have only touched on about half of the activities of Division 9, and, therefore, even less of the activities of its parent organization, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI). The amount of information provided on each contribution is primarily a function of the documentation available and its relevance to the APA. The interested reader is referred to the documents cited and to the SPSSI collection at the Archives of the History of American Psychology at the University of Akron, Ohio, for additional information.
THE EARLY YEARSDivision 9, one of the original divisions of the APA, as just mentioned, traces its roots to SPSSI, formed in September 1936 at the APA convention. SPSSI was later incorporated as a separate society, a status that it retains to this day. Although all Division 9 members must be SPSSI members, not all SPSSI members are Division 9 members. In addition to student members who are not eligible for APA membership, SPSSI also includes sociologists, 9
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