Newsletter of the Peace, War, & Social Conflict Section
June 1998 Contents:
Peace and War Section (Now Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section) Celebrates 20 Years . . . Reflections From Founding Members Elise Boulding I remember how frustrated I was during the anti-Vietnam era, that sociologists were putting so much energy into arguing political positions for the ASA and so little energy into developing the field of conflict and peace studies. Here was a research and teaching field that might in the long run enable peacebuilding scenarios to replace war and violence as ways to deal with conflicts. At that time those of us who were members of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) and its North American affiliate, the Consortium on Peace Research, Education, and Development (COPPED) were busy forming groups to promote conflict and peace studies in every social science discipline. Naturally I was delighted at the opportunity to chair a committee of sociologists already sold on peace research. Jo Elder, Ted Goertzel, Ruth Jacobs, Lou Kriesberg that was a great gang! We set about educating our colleagues through a jointly authored article on Teaching the Sociology of World Conflicts: A Review of the State of the Field. From the beginning our group, which eventually became a Section, covered a wide variety of research approaches, as does IPRA and COPPED. Never large in numbers, we were nevertheless constantly challenging and stimulating each other and getting new courses introduced into our departments. Given the new international dangers on the horizon with the steps India and Pakistan have taken to join the nuclear club, to say nothing of the turmoil in the Balkans, Middle East, and parts of Africa, it is time to remind our ASA colleagues of how important peace studies is and will be to help us get into the 21st century peacefully. More of them should join us! Louis Kriesberg My memory is that the section emerged to help solve a problem that the ASA Council faced during the hectic anti-Vietnam war struggle in this country and in the ASA. The Council, in responding to resolutions of the radical caucus relating to U.S. military engagement in Vietnam, appointed a Committee on the Sociology of World Conflicts. The initial membership did not include any members of the radical caucus, but the Committee added one. The committee was chaired by Elise M. Boulding and included Joseph W. Elder, Ted Goertzel, Ruth Harriet Jacobs, and Louis Kriesberg. The Committee strove by many methods to educate our sociology colleagues about the importance of world conflicts for sociological teaching and research. After a few years, the Council decided that such an ad hoc committee could not continue indefinitely and the Committee members somewhat reluctantly agreed to form a Section. The section was always an amalgam of groups, varying in number and relative size. The groups have included analysts of social conflicts, social movements, conflict resolution, armed forces, and popular culture; our research and teaching about these matters have stemmed from diverse theoretical and moral perspectives. We have learned much from each other. **Note: Section Chair, Mary Anna Colwell, is working to collect other statements from members recalling the section's history and founding. Please contact her prior to the San Francisco meeting if you would like to contribute to a commemorativeflyer that will be made available at the 2~h anniversary celebration. Other statements relevant to marking this anniversary are welcome for the next newsletter (deadline is 15 October).
Report from the Chair: Mary Anna Colwell, University of San Francisco As most of us know from personal experience, the work of organizational maintenance is not nearly as interesting as the effort to reach substantive goals. In spite of that there are three informal discussion groups focused on the future of the Peace and War Section at the August meetings. The good news is that these will make it possible for several people to focus on a possible workshop before the meeting in Chicago, strategies for recruiting members and providing services, and possible changes in the by-laws. Unfortunately, these discussions had to be scheduled during our four section roundtables. I once vowed I would never attend another by-laws meeting. In spite
of that, I am facilitator Beyond the organizational details, I look forward to seeing many of you at the San Francisco meeting. We will be celebrating the Section's 20th anniversary and our new name at this year's meeting!
SECTION NEWS Election Results Section members voted to change the name of the ASA's Peace and War Section to the Section on the Sociology of Peace, War, and Conflict. Thanks to John MacDougal and others who participated in the name change task force. Member Count (as of 6 June 1998): 256 (a low count; some renewals are not yet in . . .)
*To resolve a tie vote, lots were drawn and Kestnbaum will serve the Council term for this round of elections, and Firestone will begin her term next year. Membership: As usual, the Section needs to continue efforts to build up its membership. An initiative begun this year was to solicit contributions for student gift memberships. More help is needed with our incoming Section chair, Rob Benford, to continue to attract new members. Recruitment Honor Roll
Response to the New Chair of Task Force on Genocide and the Social Sciences Jack Nusan Porter, University of Massachusetts-Lowell I am very happy to see the Task Force on Genocide and the Social Sciences that Tom Cushman of Wellesley College (a place with good connections to the White House) is now chairing. I am one of the founders of the field along with Helen Fein, Vahakn Dadrian, William Helmreich, and Irving Horowitz. My book, Genocide and Human Rights: A Global Anthology (1982, but collected earlier in 1977) was the first anthology from a sociological perspective on comparative genocide. My introduction, "What is Genocide? Notes Toward a Definition," is still quoted today in many books. (Copies of the book are available through The Spencer Press, 40 Hartford St. Newton. MA 02161). I taught the first course on comparative genocide from a sociological perspective in 1977 at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell (then called University of Lowell) with the great help of sociologist Levon (Leon) Chorbajain. Without Levon's sensitivity to genocide (his mother was a survivor of the Armenian genocide of 1915), I don't think the course would have ever gotten off the ground. Thank you, Levon. John MacDougal of the Section carries on that support at Lowell, so there's a history here that few sociologists know about, part of sociology's history of genocide studies. I put together the first ASA-sponsored curriculum guide for teachers called The Sociology of Genocide/ The Holocaust (ASA, 1992), which will be out in a new edition in June, 1998, a much updated version since the field has grown so much. I came back to Lowell a few years ago to teach these courses again, after twenty years, but I find a field in disarray. I go into these issues in my entry for the upcoming Encyclopedia of Genocide of which I am a contributing editor. The entry is called "Holocaust Controversies," and copies can be gotten from me through The Spencer Press at the above address. Israel Charny of Jerusalem is the editor-in-chief. What are some of these controversies? As Tom Cushman rightfully notes: there is the problem of definition and application, there is denial of genocide on many levels. Some say, such as scholars like Steve Katz, that the Holocaust (the Shoah) was the only genocide of the 20th century; others deny that genocide took place among Native Americans or AfroAmericans. Was Bosnia a case of genocide or simply ethnic massacres? When does a massacre become a genocide? And the most difficult question of all_how and when do we intervene? Our president has admitted that we acted too late in Bosnia and Rwanda, and even in Cambodia. Mea Culpa is fine but why did we not act swiftly? Sometimes, the most difficult questions have the easiest answers-- self interest, geopolitical interests, economic interests, and "not in our best interests." People are humane but nation-states are evil creatures and they commit evil acts not only through their action but more often through their non-actions. They stand idly by while genocide occurs, now in Tibet, Cambodia earlier, Nazi Germany before that, and Armenia at the beginning of the century. Nation-states always have good reasons (excuses) not to intervene. Innocent people die while statesmen argue. Tom Cushman is correct: the 20th century is indeed a "century of genocide," but I see a bnght spot on the honzon for the 21st century. The first two major wars of this century were wars where men gladly joined. They wanted to fight. But Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War came along and increasingly, men becatne reluctant to fight. War is increasingly unpopular. Will then, war become obsolete in the 21st century or will it be replaced by smaller, surgical procedures that we call small-scale genocide? Is this a "bright spot" or not? That is the question and the challenge for us as sociologists and as hurnan~sts as we face the new millenium.
San Francisco: Section Events on the Preliminary Program Monday August 24 417. Special Session. Inequality and Violence: Understanding the
Connection (cosponsored by the ASA Section on Peace and War) Mon. 6:30 p.m. 480. Section on Peace and War. Roundtables and Business Meeting Refereed Roundtables on Peace and War: 1. Theories of Ethnicity and Nonviolence Confront Armed Conflict Transforming Ethnic Conflict in a Northern Irish Community. Lee A. Smithey, University of Texas, Austin The Lessons of Bosnia for Conflict Resolution Research. Dana P. Eyre, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey 2. Cohesion and Deviance Control in the Military In Search of a Measure of Community Cohesion. Peggy McClure and Walter Broughton, Marywood University
Table Presider: Lynne Woehrle, Wilson College How Active Duty Army Personnel Perceive the Military's Equal Opportunity Climate. Brenda L. Moore, State University of New York, Buffalo 4. Constructions of Defense and Responsibility and Their Impact on Action Table Presider: Lester R. Kurtz, University of Texas, Austin The Compulsion to Win and Its Threat to Human Survival. Gordon Fellman, Brandeis University Habermas, Critical Theory, and the Problem of Deferred Agency. Michael Sukhov, City University of New York Informal Discussion Roundtables:-The Peace and War Section and the Future 5. Recruiting and Serving Members. Mady Segal, University of Maryland 6. Section Workshop before the Chicago Meeting. Organizer: Robert D. Benford, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 7. Section Bylaws and Terms of Off ce. Mary Anna C. Colwell, University of San Francisco 9:30-10:15 a.m., Section Business Meeting Tues.10:30-12:15 Organizer and Presider: Jackie Smith, State University of New York, Stony Brook Globalization, Inequality, and Conflict. Robert Schaeffer, San Jose State University; and Torry Dickinson, Kansas State University International Integration, Employment, and Export Agriculture: The Developmental Implications of the Chilean Grape Industry. Marcus Kurtz, University of Miami Diffusion of Human Rights and Ethnic Mobilization: Internal and External Causes of Ethnic Mobilization in the Contemporary World. Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Stanford University World System vs. World Culture: Human Rights and Transnational Corporations. Jackie Smith, Melissa Bolyard, and Anna Ippolito, State University of New York, Stony Brook Discussion: Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange; and Anuradha Mittal, Institute for Food and Development Policy_Food First
Organizers: Mary Anna C. Colwell, University of San Francisco; and Robert D. Benford, University of Nebraska, Lincoln Presider: Robert D. Benford, University of Nebraska, Lincoln Shattering Echoes: Impact of the American New Left on Reform and Conflict in Northern Ireland. Gregory M. Maney, University of Wisconsin, Madison The American Anti-Vietnam War Movement and the Development of New Channels of Political Access. Kelly Moore, Barnard College The Central America Peace Movement: Achievements and Failures in Retrospect. Christian Smith, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill How the Cold War Was Really Won: Rethinking the Effectiveness of Peace
Movements. David Meyer, City College, City University of New York Organizer and Presider: Lynda J. Ames, State University of New York, Plattsburgh Without Certain Inalienable Rights: A Critical Evaluation of Sexuality
in the U.S. Army. Justin Gender and Sexual Orientation Diversity in Modern Military Forces: Cross-National Patterns. David R. Segal and Bradford Booth, University of Maryland, College Park Discussion: Melissa S. Herbert, Hamline University; and Laura
L. Miller, University of California, Kriesberg, Louis. Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution (1998, Rowman & Littlefield). Kriesberg, Louis. "Intractable Conflicts" In The
Handbook of Interethnic Coexistence Kriesberg, Louis. "Coexistence and the Reconciliation of Communal Conflicts" in The Handbook of Interethnic Coexistence Eugene Weiner, Editor. (New York: Continuum, 1998) pp. 183-198. Smith, Jackie, Ron Pagnucco and George A. Lopez, "Globalizing Human Rights: The Work of Transnational Human Rights NGOs in the l 990s."Human Rights Quarterly 20 (May, 1998) 379-412.
Member News Morten Ender has taken a position as Assistant Professor of Sociology at the United States Military Academy, Department of Behavioral Science & Leadership at West Point. His e-mail will continue to work at: [email protected] Jennifer Turpin has been promoted to Associate Dean for
Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of San Francisco.
And look for her co-edited book, The Women and War Reader, which
is coming out in August from NYU Press (with Lois Ann Lorentzen). Turpin
was also appointed Vice-Chair of a new NGO called International Peace University,
which is Chaired and directed by Section members Kai Erikson and James
Skelly, respectively. International Peace University is a new program that
will link peace, conflict, and development studies programs internationally
and allow students to complete an M.A. while studying at different institutions.
More information on the program can be accessed at www.peaceuniversity.com. Call for Submissions: The Charles DeBenedetti Prize in Peace History, for 1997-1998 Articles should be submitted in triplicate by February
1, 1999 to Susan Zeiger, Department of History, Regis College, Weston
MA 02193.
Volunteer In order to serve our members, the Section needs your help. In particular, we need volunteers to help with the following: Chicago Workshop Planning If you are interested in volunteering for these
Calls for Papers Peace Review, a transnational, multidisciplinary quarterly, publishes essays on -topics including war, violence, human rights, political economy, development, culture and consciousness, and the environment. Deadlines July 25 for issue on "Conflict identities." "Third World Peace Perspectives"/ October 27. Send essays on and off themes of 2500-3500 words, on IBM or Mac disk to: Robert Elias, Editor. Peace Review. University of San Francisco; 2130 Fulton St. San Francisco,CA 94177 ([email protected]).
Peace Studies-Related Web Sites See the Section Research web page for additional locations. Web site on Democide, Democracy and War: Developed by R.J. Rummel (Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Hawaii), this site includes data, sources, statistical analyses, books, and articles. The democide data covers major pre-20th century episodes of democide, and all democide for all nations 1900-1987. http://www2.hawaii. edu/~rummel/
REMEMBER
During the Reception, we will recognize the 20th Anniversary of the Section's founding. Please join us in San Francisco to commemorate the origins of the Peace and War Section.
Peace, War, & Social Conflict Section Membership
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