From: "Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D." <libraryofsocialscience-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: Call for Papers: The PEACE REVIEW on the Psychological Interpretation of War
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 14:41:43 -0500


Special Issue of the PEACE REVIEW on:
"The Psychological Interpretation of War"
Editors, Richard Koenigsberg and Wendy Hamblet

 

Horace wrote that "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." This
thought has echoed through the centuries, punctuating the battle cries of
those who dream of righteous conquest and holy war. Warfare has been
perpetuated to the extent that struggles on the battlefield have been linked
with ideals such as honor, duty, and loyalty.

 

Yet these words cannot nullify the reality of warfare, which is death,
destruction and devastation.  Gwynne Dyer captures war's essence when he
contends that, by becoming soldiers, "Men agree to die when we tell them
to."

 

In the  twentieth and  twenty-first century, vast numbers of civilians have
joined soldiers as victims of war. Brzezinski describes the last century as
the "century of the megadeath," estimating that more than 87 million lives
were lost in the wars of the past one-hundred years. In the First World War,
nine-million people died--more than twice as many as had died in wars in the
previous two centuries. Yet the Second World War produced a death toll of
even greater magnitude, estimated at well over fifty-million.

 

How can we make sense of the ritual of death and destruction in warfare?
What does it mean? What is its continuing appeal? What does its persistence
say about us? This special issue of the PEACE REVIEW on "The Psychological
Interpretation of War" will address these and similar questions, exploring
the human tendency to embrace warfare--in spite of the misery it creates and
disillusionment that follows in its wake. Though warfare is often thought of
as normative if not normal, we shall seek to lift the idea of war out of the
realm of the self-evident and to view it as something extraordinary. 

 

This special issue will raise vital questions relating to the psychology of
war. For example, how do motives such as fear, humiliation, anger, and the
wish for vengeance become linked to the ideology of warfare? If war indeed
is a socially constructed institution, upon what bases do we construct it?
By virtue of what mechanisms do we turn human "others" into enemies? How do
we come to believe that killing is "necessary" to the creation of a better
world? What is the relationship between the notion of a sacred ideal and the
willingness to kill and to sacrifice one's own life? 

 

To move toward a world not dominated by warfare, one must do more than
advocate peace. We must begin by interrogating the sources of war's appeal.
In this special issue of the PEACE REVIEW, we seek to publish outstanding
papers that explore the mystery of the human attraction to an institution
whose primary product has been suffering and death.



  _____  

PLEASE SEND US YOUR ABSTRACT:

 

Please send a two-hundred word abstract proposing your essay to the PEACE
REVIEW EDITORS, Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D. and Wendy C. Hamblet, Ph. D. to
arrive no later than December 31, 2004 to PsychologyofWar-AT-earthlink.net.

  _____  

The Peace Review

 

Peace Review is a quarterly, multidisciplinary, transnational journal of
research and analysis, focusing on the current issues and controversies that
underlie the promotion of a more peaceful world. Social progress requires,
among other things, sustained intellectual work, which should be pragmatic
as well as analytical. The task of the journal is to present the results of
this research and thinking in short, accessible and substantive essays.
Recent contributors include Richard Rorty, Stephen Zunes and Drucilla
Cornell.

 

Peace Review Home Page:

 <http://www.usfca.edu/peacereview/index.htm>
http://www.usfca.edu/peacereview/index.htm

 

Submission Guidelines for the Peace Review:

 <http://www.usfca.edu/peacereview/guidelines.htm>
http://www.usfca.edu/peacereview/guidelines.htm

 

Taylor and Francis (the publisher of PEACE REVIEW) provides a free, online
sample copy that you may read and review. Please go the following website to
register:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/onlinesamples.asp

 



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