Topic:
Conflict and Peacemaking
=
new link as of May 1, 2008
Global survey of peacefulness - This survey, from the Vision of Humanity/Economist Intelligence Unit/Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, ranks nations on peacefulness. Should be a good lesson in operational definitions as well. [added 8/05/07]
Desegregating California's prisons - Interesting forced "experiment" California is about to undertake in 2006. Most prisons are heavily segregated to reduce violence. What will happen? Read also about Texas' experience with such desegregation. [added 7/6/06]
Assimilating immigrants in U.S. vs. France - This publication from the RAND Corporation, "Assimilating immigrants: Why America can and France cannot," compares the success and failure of the two countries to responding to mass immigration. [added 1/15/06]
"Why are rivalries so intense?" - Unfortunately, this article does little to answer the title question, but it does describe a variety of rivalries in college football. Provides for interesting conversation about the topic. [added 1/13/06]
"Keeping extremists out..." - "Keeping extremists out: The history of ideological exclusion, and the need for its revival" is a recent essay from the Heartland Institute. [added 1/13/06]
"Establishing law and order after conflict" - a 2005 RAND report describing and analyzing efforts at reconstruction in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo [added 1/8/06]
Dialogue with the Muslim world - This report draws on focus groups in the Muslim world to identify strategies to open a dialogue between the U.S. and the Muslim world and to reduce anti-American sentiment. [added 9/20/05]
A Muslim response to 9/11 - "The following web page is produced through the cooperation of over 50 professors of Islamic Studies and Middle Eastern Studies from the US and Canada. These scholars are members of the Study of Islam section at the American Academy of Religion, the largest international organization responsible for the academic study of religion." Lots of articles, statements and images. [added 12/1/04]
Days of Infamy: December 7 and 9/11 - comparison of two infamous days in American history -- hear the voices of people immediately following each event, and more [added 12/1/04]"Poverty, political freedom, and the roots of terrorism" - A recently released research paper by Alberto Abadie -- "This article provides an empirical investigation of the determinants of terrorism at the country level." [added 12/1/04]
The Conflict Map - From the Nobel Foundation, this interactive map allows you to trace and read about major conflicts of the 20th century as well as view the geographic origins of Nobel Peace Prize winners. [added 7/1/04]
INCORE - "INCORE (International Conflict Research) was set up in 1993 by the University of Ulster and the United Nations University to undertake research and policy work that is useful to the resolution of ethnic, political and religious conflicts. Currently, INCORE's research focuses mainly on post conflict issues, issues of governance and diversity, and research methodology in violent societies." Lots of good resources on conflict and peacemaking can be found here including the "Ethnic Conflict Research Digest" which reviews recent research and publications on ethnic conflict and the "Conflict Data Service" which provides extensive examples of ongoing conflicts and peace agreements that have been created. [added 4/5/04]
Country Reports.org - okay, this site isn't directly related to social psych, but if you are dealing with international issues and you and your students need to learn more about certain countries, this is a great place to begin - plus, its tagline is "eradicate conflict by building cultural awareness" [added 3/21/02]
CrisisWeb - reports on conflicts and crises around the world presented by the International Crisis Group [added 3/6/02]
Nobel Peace Laureates Respond to September 11 - a very interesting site that has collected responses to the September 11 attack from the 17 living Nobel Peace Prize winners -readers can also respond to the laureates
Center for Collaborative Organizations - articles, research projects and links on work teams
Crowds - search at Project Gutenberg for two classic articles from Gustave Le Bon
Nonviolent Conflict - excellent PBS resource "A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict" covers South Africa, Gandhi's resistance in India, and other examples
Group Conflict
Iraq Conflict
Attitudes towards U.S. in Muslim world - This report, "Negative attitudes toward the United States in the Muslim world: Do they matter?," addresses a survey conducted by World Public Opinion.org. [added 7/16/07]
Operation Truth - Personal stories and issues from the troops who served or are serving in Iraq [added 12/1/04]
Bush's Preemption Strategy - a policy brief from the Brookings Institution entitled "The new national security strategy and preemption"
IraqJournal.org - This site contains lots of print, audio and video resources from journalists who claim to be providing an independent voice and alternative perspective on Iraq. In their words, "With Washington on the verge of seeking to destroy an already devastated country, a group of independent journalists and activists - spearheaded by Voices in the Wilderness and the Iraq Peace Team - are breaking ranks with the war chorus." [added 12/06/02]
The Iraq Debate - lots of resources related to the debate over war with Iraq - from the University of Michigan Documents Center [added 12/03/02]
More Iraq, Hussein and Terrorism Resources - from Joyner Library at East Carolina University [added 12/03/02]
Prisoner's Dilemma
The prisoners' dilemma - Lots of examples and resources related to the prisoners' dilemma [added 3/30/04]
Interactive prisoner's dilemma - not only can you play the game, but you can manipulate a number of variables and select different strategies at this site
Interactive prisoner's dilemma - play the game; includes links to explanations
Prisoner's dilemma - explanation and a few links
Sociobiology and the prisoner's dilemma - addressed in Heylighen F. (1992). Evolution, Selfishness and Cooperation, Journal of Ideas, Vol 2, 4, pp 70-76.
Evolution and the prisoner's dilemma - addressed in Brembs, B. 1996. Chaos cheating and cooperation: potential solutions to the Prisoner's Dilemma. OIKOS, 76, 14-24.
"Inside Gaza: The challenge of clans and families" - [added 4/5/08]
The traveler's dilemma - Dilemma about two travelers who find... well, you can read about it, and some research connected to this dilemma. [added 7/16/07]
Younger vs. older workers - Interesting studies: "The population of most developed societies is 'graying'. As life expectancy increases and the large baby-boom generation approaches retirement age, this has critical consequences for maintaining a high standard of living and the sustainability of pension systems. In the light of these labor-force and social concerns, we consider experimentally the comparative behavior of juniors (under 30) and seniors (over 50) in both experiments conducted onsite with the employees of two large firms and in a conventional laboratory environment with students and retirees. Our results are compelling. First, seniors are not more risk-averse, as opposed to the conventional stereotype. Second, both juniors and seniors react to the competitiveness of the environment and there is no significant difference in performance in the real-effort task across the generations when they are competing. Third, seniors are typically more cooperative than juniors in a team-production game. Cooperation is highest in groups in which there is a mix of juniors and seniors, suggesting that there are indeed benefits in maintaining a work force with diversity in age." [added 7/7/07]
Darfur - Here's a few pieces on the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan: Here; here; and here. [added 1/1/06]
Leaving the toilet seat down - Oh, you didn't realize this issue was ultimately one of game theory and conflict resolution? Read on... [added 1/1/06]
The Middle East Buddy List - Slate.com has created this unique presentation of the different parties in the Middle East. Find out who is friend or enemy of whom, or maybe "it's complicated." [added 12/22/06]
The Hizbollah perspective - "Hizbollah's outlook in the current conflict" is a report from Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, an assistant professor at the Lebanese American University. Saad-Ghorayeb attempts to answer questions about the motives and objectives of Hizbollah in the current Hizbollah/Israeli conflict. This report is from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. [added 12/22/06]
How Westerners and Muslims view each other - a report of attitudes from the Pew Global Attitudes Project - a lot of interesting data [added 7/6/06]
Anti-Americanism in Turkey - "The anatomy of anti-Americanism in Turkey" is a recent report from The Brookings Institution. [added 1/13/06]
Riots in France (2005) - info and photos about the recent riots in France - more info can be found here [added 1/13/06]
Tibetan-Muslim coexistence and conflict - a paper from the Crisis States Research Centre [added 1/8/06]
"Exploring religious conflict" - A brief text from the RAND Corporation, it "reports the result of a workshop that brought together intelligence analysts and experts on religion with the goal of providing background and a frame of reference for assessing religious motivations in international politics and discovering what causes religiously rooted violence and how states have sought to take advantage of or contain religious violence — with emphasis on radical Islam." [added 1/8/06]Recent dispute between China and Japan - Find lots of resources from the BBC on ongoing conflicts between China and Japan, the most recent trigger being "Japan's decision to approve eight new school textbooks, which critics say gloss over the country's actions before and during World War II." [added 8/30/05]
North Korea nuclear crisis - another BBC News treatment of the crisis (2005), with timeline and related stories [added 6/17/05]
Nepal crisis - (2005) [added 6/17/05]The Cuban Missile Crisis - Declassified documents, audio clips, chronology, analysis and more from an exhibit "The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: The 40th Anniversary" from the National Security Archive at George Washington University [added 12/1/04]
The Chechen conflict - a good set of resources from the BBC on recent events [added 12/1/04]
The Sudan conflict - a report from the British House of Commons [added 12/1/04]BBC News country profiles - The BBC News site is a rich source of information about conflicts around the world. One good resource is the Country Profiles section which provides your students with background info about any country which can help them understand past and present conflicts. Then, beyond the background info, the site provides in depth information on current conflicts such as the Nepal Conflict and Israel and the Palestinians. [added 6/9/04]
"Brown at 50: King's dream or Plessy's nightmare?" - A recent report (2004) from The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University describes findings that gains in desegregation peaked in the late 1980s in the United States and has since declined to the level it was in 1969, the year after Martin Luther King’s assassination. Furthermore, whites have very little contact with minorities in most places in the U.S. [added 3/30/04]
Conflict and Peacemaking: Cuban Missile Crisis - The Washington Post has made available its actual newspaper reports from 1962 coverage of Cuban missile crisis [added 12/03/02]
History of Apple Computing - interesting case of group conflict and other processes as told by Glen Sanford [added 3/6/02]
"Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment" - classic article from Muzafer Sherif et al.
Another look at Sherifs' Robbers Cave studies - an interesting retelling taking into account the Sherifs' earlier studies [added 12/9/07]
In vivo social experiment - CBS TV show, Survivor, "strands" volunteers in different locations
"Behind the Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein" - PBS Frontline show (1998) on conflict in Northern Ireland
Reducing Conflict/Peacemaking
"Why things cost $19.95" - another interesting recap of recent research from Wray Herbert's APS blog "We're only human" [added 4/5/08]
Violence in Kenya - The first link is to a recent news story about the current violence in Kenya. Here is a link to an analysis, "Breaking the stalemate in Kenya," which explores how the crisis evolved and how it might be resolved. [added 4/5/08]
"Force and restraint in strategic deterrance" - From a game-theorist's perspective, this report is from the Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College. [added 3/21/08]
Muslim integration - a series of seven papers addressing issues related to Muslim integration in Europe and the U.S., from the Center for Strategic and International Studies [added 12/9/07]
Top 10 solutions - a report from the 2007 Carnegie International Nonproliferation Conference in which participants identified the top ten solutions to current challenges, including
* Top 3 Upcoming Challenges to the Nonproliferation Regime
* Top 3 Best New Policy Proposals
* Top 4 High Impact Ideas to Implement by 2010 [added 10/19/07]"Survey: U.S. Muslims assimilated" - "Unlike Muslim minorities in many European countries, U.S. Muslims are highly assimilated, close to parity with other Americans in income and overwhelmingly opposed to Islamic extremism, according to the first major, nationwide random survey of Muslims." [added 7/16/07]
Effects of U.N. peace programs? - a report from The World Bank on the short-term and long-term effects of U.N. peace operations -- conclusion? Very effective in the short-term, but long-term effects dissipate [added 7/14/07]
Sharing resources equitably - interesting research on a new model for fairly sharing/dividing up resources [added 1/1/06]
Cooperation evolved from competition? - an article describing research suggesting that altruism may have arisen from its superiority over selfishness when competing for resources with other groups [added 12/31/06]
Threat of punishment on cooperation - A study reported in Scientific American found that "the threat of penalty is the key to successful cooperation." [added 7/6/06]
"Making peace through apology" - Aaron Lazare describes when apologies help and when they make things worse. [added 1/15/06]
Teaching conflict resolution through games - This article describes a program at an elementary school that uses "peace games" to help students resolve their differences. [added 1/15/06]Sex differences in negotiation tactics - "Two experiments show that sex differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations may be explained by differential treatment of men and women when they attempt to negotiate." - From the Faculty Research Working Paper Series at Harvard [added 1/8/06]
Living communities - "Beyond 50: A report to the livable communities: Creating environments for successful aging" from AARP (American Association of Retired People) attempts "to articulate a vision of livable communities for persons of all ages, and particularly for people age 50 and older." [added 9/20/05]
Strategies for promoting human rights - The New Tactics in Human Rights project provides lots of strategies/tactics for advancing human rights. Look in the "Tools for Action" and tactics database for examples. [added 6/20/05]
U.S. Institute of Peace - reports and other resources [added 3/20/05]
"The counterterror coalitions: Cooperation with Pakistan and India" - From the Rand Corporation, "the study examines U.S. strategic relations with India and Pakistan both historically and in the current context of the global war on terrorism. An inescapable conclusion of the report is that the intractable dispute over the disposition of Kashmir remains a critical flashpoint between India and Pakistan and a continual security challenge. The author offers five policy options on how the United States might proceed." [added 3/20/05]Links to peace psychology resources - nice set of links from Scott Plous and the Social Psychology Network on peace, conflict resolution, terrorism and nonviolence [added 12/1/04]
"How social science can reduce terrorism" - Here is an interesting article by Scott Plous and Phil Zimbardo recently published in The Chronice of Higher Education. A less graphic-intense version can be found here. [added 12/1/04]Report on racial and ethnic integration in U.S. metropolitan areas - "Living together: A new look at racial and ethnic integration in metropolitan neighborhoods, 1990-2000" is an analysis of census data from the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy at The Brookings Institution. [added 6/15/04]
Cooperation among the baboons - interesting article of possible cultural transmission of female baboons' attempt to induce more cooperation from male baboons [added 6/9/04]
Conflict resolution resources - CRInfo provides an extensive set of links and resources on conflict resolution. Provided by the Conflict Resolution Consortium at the University of Colorado, this site contains well organized sets of links on many related topics, links to current news on the topic, lists of relevant print resources, and advice on how to use these resources for a variety of different audiences. For example, links to case studies, simulations and other course materials are made available to educators. [added 7/23/03]
"The Roadmap to Peace in the Middle East" - The U.S. State Department provides documents and other resources (2003) related to the Middle East peace process. [added 7/23/03]
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute [added 12/06/02]
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace [added 12/06/02]
The Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies [added 12/06/02]
United for Peace - "United for Peace is a collaboration of national and international peace and social justice organizations and scores of local places of worship, peace centers, and community organizations." [added 12/06/02]
Peace and Security Through Disarmament - from the United Nations, reports, news and other resources [added 12/06/02]
"Crime in the Schools: Reducing Conflict with Student Problem Solving" - report from the U.S. Dept. of Justice (1999)
Resources for the Teaching of Social Psychology is a part of the CROW Project, Course Resources on the Web. CROW is sponsored by the Associated Colleges of Illinois and generously supported by UPS. This site was created by Jon Mueller, Professor of Psychology at North Central College, Naperville, IL. Send comments to Jon.