This dissertation pursues three broad questions. First, what are the correlates of nonviolent attitudes around the world? Second, which nations exhibit characteristics of robust "Cultures of Peace"? Third, are there signs that history and collective memory shapes attitudes, i.e., do cultures "learn" from experiences of war, peace, or nonviolence? A multi-method approach sought to further our understandings of propensities for peace at both the national and individual levels. First, an analysis of nation-level Gallup World Poll data (N=136 nations) identifies correlates of nonviolent attitudes and advances a critique of the Global Peace Index (GPI), grounded in the observed disconnect between structural and attitudinal indicators of peace in many nations. The Gallup World Poll analysis suggests that many forces of modernization instill forms of "callous cruelty" while failing to cultivate pragmatic nonviolent attitudes. For example, poor nations and nations with recent successful nonviolent revolution are more likely to affirm that nonviolence "works" than wealthier nations ranking high in the GPI. Moreover, it is argued from Gallup data that the accumulation of "peace capital" is quite specific, with a frequent disconnect between forms of principled and pragmatic nonviolence. Second, survey data were collected from two "maximally different" cases, university students in the U.S. (N=403) and Costa Rica (N=312), which have starkly divergent structural and historical relationships to peace and militarism. Utilizing a new survey instrument, factor analyses helped to identify cross-national variations in respondent adherence to ideologies of violence and nonviolence: militarism, realism, just war, or nonviolence. The results show Costa Ricans were significantly more peaceful than U.S. respondents on 48 out of 52 items. Susceptibility to "elite cues" was tested in an experimental section. Tests revealed gaps in historical knowledge of nonviolence offering support for the theory that "ideology has no history." Finally, a cross-national sample of state-approved history textbooks from 8 nations (Germany, Norway, Ghana, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the U.S.) were analyzed as outcomes of collective memory processes. The relative neglect of significant nonviolent revolutions and campaigns in the majority of these textbooks suggests formidable obstacles to the proliferation of nonviolent ideology around the world. / 10000-01-01

The image of two US athletes with black glove-covered fists raised on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics is iconic. However, despite a number of academic studies, articles, books, lectures and films addressing this moment, the deeper story behind that student-athlete protest at Mexico 68 is little known. It was far from being a merely spontaneous or violent action. In fact, the protest was part of a concerted and largely peaceful effort to highlight several systemic injustices of the late 1960s by a group named the Olympic Project for Human Rights. As will be demonstrated in this thesis, it follows that the deeper story of the student-athlete protests at Mexico 68 are ripe with significance from both: (1) a Peace Studies perspective, focussing on structural injustice, and (2) a Conflict Resolution Studies viewpoint, which upholds value in the constructive settling of disputes. Employing a Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) lens, which keeps both sets of concerns in view, and undertaking descriptive and analytical approaches that bring the voice of the athletes to the fore as much as possible given the limitations of this study, allows for a discussion of remarkable student-athletes interacting not only within the competitive structure of their sport at the Olympics, but also amongst social, institutional, and political contexts. This approach becomes foundational for the conclusion that the athletes involved in protests at Mexico 68 were players (i.e., agents) and not pawns, in relation to complex socio-political forces, which sought to manipulate and oppress them. Moreover, this PACS approach allows for twelve concrete lessons flowing from the stories of the athletes to be delineated for their contemporary relevance in a world where far too many injustices remain. In short, the main protest is herein presented as an awe-inspiring moment, simultaneously as a compass and a key, which when integrated with a PACS perspective serves to guide us towards a fuller understanding of the Olympic Project for Human Rights and it goals, unlocking what is revealed in this study to be a potentially important moment in the history of cultures of peace.

The image of two US athletes with black glove-covered fists raised on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics is iconic. However, despite a number of academic studies, articles, books, lectures and films addressing this moment, the deeper story behind that student-athlete protest at Mexico 68 is little known. It was far from being a merely spontaneous or violent action. In fact, the protest was part of a concerted and largely peaceful effort to highlight several systemic injustices of the late 1960s by a group named the Olympic Project for Human Rights. As will be demonstrated in this thesis, it follows that the deeper story of the student-athlete protests at Mexico 68 are ripe with significance from both: (1) a Peace Studies perspective, focussing on structural injustice, and (2) a Conflict Resolution Studies viewpoint, which upholds value in the constructive settling of disputes. Employing a Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) lens, which keeps both sets of concerns in view, and undertaking descriptive and analytical approaches that bring the voice of the athletes to the fore as much as possible given the limitations of this study, allows for a discussion of remarkable student-athletes interacting not only within the competitive structure of their sport at the Olympics, but also amongst social, institutional, and political contexts. This approach becomes foundational for the conclusion that the athletes involved in protests at Mexico 68 were players (i.e., agents) and not pawns, in relation to complex socio-political forces, which sought to manipulate and oppress them. Moreover, this PACS approach allows for twelve concrete lessons flowing from the stories of the athletes to be delineated for their contemporary relevance in a world where far too many injustices remain. In short, the main protest is herein presented as an awe-inspiring moment, simultaneously as a compass and a key, which when integrated with a PACS perspective serves to guide us towards a fuller understanding of the Olympic Project for Human Rights and it goals, unlocking what is revealed in this study to be a potentially important moment in the history of cultures of peace.