Constructing Wars

• Published in: Peace and conflict 2019-05, Vol.25 (2), p.109-110
• Main Author: Moghaddam, Fathali M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aggressiveness; Bystander Effect; Bystanders; Collective representation; Conflict; Democracy; Group identity; Human; Human Rights; Human rights violations; Ingroup Outgroup; Intergroup relations; Meaning; Perpetrators; Political Radicalism; Radicalism; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Terrorism; Victimization; Victims; Violations; Violence; War; Witnesses
• ISSN: 1078-1919; 1532-7949
• DOI: 10.1037/pac0000393

In his monumental play Hamlet, Shakespeare (1609/1992) displays one of his most brilliant insights: that human beings do not need “great causes” to fight—they can wage war over the most seemingly minor issue; they can manufacture a great “argument” and “causes” out of nothing and magnify group-based differences to justify violence against outgroups. This trend is reflected in the contents of the current issue of the journal. In addition to three major articles, two Brief Research Reports, one book review essay, and one book review, we have a Special Section on democracy and security that includes six brief articles and an introduction. The three major articles are on the theme of how individuals move in the direction of radicalization and terrorism (Milla, 2019), become passive bystanders and witnesses of conflicts and violations of human rights (Passini, 2019), and retain fluid social representations of past conflicts (Bouchat et al., 2019). In all three articles, the meaning and significance of conflict is changing and socially constructed, not static and fixed. The jihadi willing to sacrifice the self to inflict harm on others, the bystander remaining as a passive onlooker in the face of violence and human rights violations, and remembrances and reconstructions of the “Great War”—these all depend on subjective and changing interpretations. Although the meaning of conflict can be changing in the minds of perpetrators of aggression, unfortunately the consequences of such aggression for victims is all too real and in important respects continual. Two Brief Reports examine the psychological consequences of terror on Pakistani (Ehsan, Riaz, & Khalily, 2019) and Yezidi (Msall, 2019) victims. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)