Download Proposal for United Nations Study on Disarmament and Non

Proposal for United Nations Study on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation
Education
Transcendent Politics - Towards a New Paradigm
Weapons proliferation is a symptom of a militaristic
worldview, a hegemonic ideological belief system characterized by
a preoccupation with enemies and a resolve to overcome them
through domination by threat and use of violent force and other
forms of punishment.
Disarmament and non-proliferation represent a paradigm shift
- a quantum leap in consciousness. In order to foster this shift
we must go beyond removing the symptoms - weapons. We must deal
with the underlying causes so that the symptoms are no longer
produced. A shift in consciousness is primary. It is essential to
elaborate the new paradigm (Thomas Kuhn), by proposing a
"counter-hegemonic theory” (Gramsci and Lustick) . According to
Richard Wendell Fogg, Director of the Center or the Study of
Conflict, the goal is not merely "abolishing war" but "replacing
war" with something that works better.
The idea of disarmament frequently provokes strong negative
emotional reactions and psychological resistance since it doesn’t
answer the question of how to deal with enemies (Iraq and N
Korea now for the US). It is experienced as the taking away of
necessary “defenses”, and stimulates fears of vulnerability, as
it does not provide a convincing alternative.
In our collective thinking at present, we have two categories
of response - do nothing or attack. We have no well developed
category of thinking about the transcendent path of creative
conflict transformation, win-win strategies, uses of nonviolent
force. There are optimal ways to address even the most
intractable conflicts -- based on theory, research, observation,
and historical examples which are most likely to yield a best
case scenario.
A basic knowledge of psychological dimensions which underlie
conflict would lay a sound foundation upon which all strategies
would be built. For example; people are most dangerous when they
are afraid, the way to be more secure is to make your enemy more
secure, developing empathy for the Other's history and
psychology, anticipating counterproductive reactions to one's
language and strategies, especially humiliation, powerlessness,
etc. would go a long way to prevent violence. An understanding of
human development,attachment, loss, trauma, identity, gender, the
psychology of otherness and the image of the enemy would be
valuable.
The first part of the educational agenda would focus on
understanding the human psyche as it relates to relationship,
conflict, and life and death issues. The second part would use
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that knowledge to inform new, healthy, adaptive, psychologically
informed strategies to foster a quantum shift in consciousness as
a basis to build institutions that can creatively reduce tension
and fear, prevent or effectively address the most extreme forms
of conflict and violence. These are characterized as political
intelligence, wisdom, maturity and visionary or transcendent
leadership. Topics include:
Part 1
* Human development - attachment, trauma, identity, the Other.
* Gender and Authoritarianism - the warping of masculinity and
the splitting of the Self under patriarchal domination and
punishment
* Nuclearism (defined by Robert Jay Lifton and Richard Falk, in
Indefensible Weapons), an extension of Militarism - as the
"psychological political, and military dependence on nuclear
weapons, the embrace of the weapons as a solution to a wide
variety of human dilemmas, most ironically that of security."
(p. ix) From a psychological perspective, this attitude is
irrational, pathological, delusional, and extremely dangerous to
self and others (grounds for commitment). We are collectively in
the grip of a militaristic consciousness, which precludes
imagination leading to more effective ways of dealing with
conflict.
* the Image of the Enemy - archetypes of enemy images, the mirror
image of the enemy, manipulation of the image of the enemy to
incite fear and promote militarism, resistance of the enemy image
to change, self – fulfilling prophecy and the psychological cost
of
*Stages in enemy development- the need for survival and fear of
annihilation, the need for attachment and fear of strangers, the
need to be good and projection of the shadow, the need to belong
and us against them, the need to be superior and dehumanization.
This would include child rearing patterns, and the work of Alice
Miller and Erik Erikson
* Factors in escalation of conflict and violence, debunking
deterrence theory (Rob Green - the Naked Nuclear Emperor)
* Economic investment in the Military Industrial Complex, and the
need for conversion
Part 2
* Political Intelligence (Perlman) , criteria for a transcendent
view of conflict
* The Interconnectedness among militarism, poverty, the
environment, the economy, and human rights issues.
* Conflict Transformation - addressing fears, tension reduction
(Osgood), language, techniques.
* Peacemaking - Use of nonviolent force and strength (Richard
Wendell Fogg) including "spiritual, moral, intellectual,
emotional, social, political, economic, physical and aesthetic
forms." Fogg asks what if nonmilitary defense had the 5
advantages of Military defense, including "1 - organization
by governments, 2 - vast amounts of resources, 3 - planning, 4 training, and 5 - allies? Military action usually has had all
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these advantages: nonviolence has never had all of them." and a
proposal for a Global Nonviolent Peace Force, by David Hartsough
and Mel Duncan
* New Zealand’s example of transformation to a non-militarist
consciousness
* Towards a Global Consciousness
Diane Perlman, PhD 507 Fairview Road Narberth, Pa. 19072
(h) 610 667 4704
(o)610 667 6703
fax610 667 2747
[email protected]
* Licensed clinical psychologist
* Political psychologist
* Vice president, The Philadelphia Project for Global Security
* Co-chair, Committee for Militarism, Disarmament and Conversion
of Division 48 (Peace Psychology) of the American Psychological
Association and Psychologists for Social responsibility
* Founding member, The Transcending Trauma Project (studying
adaptation of Holocaust survivors and their children)
* Fellow, The Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical
Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania
* Research Associate, the Citizens Panel on Ultimate Weapons at
the Center on Violence and Human Survival.
* Founding member of Collaborative Family Law Affiliates
* Speaker for Physicians for Social responsibility in the 1980s
and early 1990s
* Presented at American Psychological Association, the Hague
Appeal for Peace, the NGO Forum of the UN Fourth World Conference
on Women, The Gaza Community Mental Health Program International
Conferences, the International Psychohistorical Association, and
other places.
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