<p> "Might makes right," so the saying goes. What does this mean? What does it mean to say that humans live by this saying? How can this saying that is considered by almost all as an expression of injustice play a justificatory role practically universally and ubiquitously? How can it be repulsive and yet, nonetheless, attractive as an explanation of the ways of the world? Why its long history? </p><p> I offer a non-cynical explanation, one based on a re-interpretation of the saying and of both recognized and unrecognized related phenomena. This re-interpretation relies on the notion of a tacit justification for violence. </p><p> This non-cynical, re-interpretive explanation exposes the ambiguity of the saying and the consequential unwitting, self-deceptive, fallacious equivocations that the ambiguity makes possible under common conditions. While this explanation, furthermore, focuses on thinking factors&mdash;specifically on fallacious thinking, on humans' unwittingly and self-deceptively committing the fallacy of equivocation&mdash;it does not deny the possible role of non-thinking factors; it only tries to show that the thinking factors are significantly explanatory. </p><p> What is the ambiguity? "Might makes right" expresses two principles. The first principle is the common meaning, namely, that the dominance of the mightier over the weaker is right. This principle is generally considered to be not a definition of justice but an expression of injustice. The second principle, which is almost universally shared in a tacit and unreflective way, is a principle of life, namely, that it is right for any living being to actualize its potential. This second principle is originary and thus primary, while the first principle is derivative and thus secondary. The use of all powers, natural or social, can be ultimately derived legitimately or illegitimately from this primary principle. </p><p> A common manifestation of "might makes right" is the unwitting abuse of power, an abuse that is not recognized as such by the so-called abuser, but that is rather suffered by this latter, who misapplies the second principle in situations that fall under the first principle, thereby unwittingly living by the saying, tacitly justifying abusive ways by it. This unwittingness calls for critical control and forgiveness.</p>

<p> Barbara Deming was active in the U.S. nonviolent movement from 1960 until her death from cancer in 1984 at age sixty-seven. A complex understanding of the intersections between gender, sexuality, feminism, and nonviolence can be gleaned by following her pilgrimage through nuclear disarmament activities, the African American Freedom Movement, the efforts to end the war in Viet Nam, Women's Liberation Movement actions, and her involvement in the Gay Liberation Movement. Deming had become well-known by the mid-1960s as a journalist for <i>The Nation,</i> an associate editor of the pacifist magazine <i>Liberation,</i> and the author of <i> Prison Notes</i> (1966), the first of her eight books. Despite her name recognition at the time and the leadership roles she often took in these social movements, she has nearly disappeared from the historical record. </p><p> Deming's story has been both preserved and erased because of her focus on integrating nonviolence with feminism, lesbianism, and androgyny in the 1970s and 80s. Deming identified as a lesbian as a teenager, but being white and upper-class shielded her from some oppression. By the 1970s she came to see her gender and sexuality as central to her involvement in the nonviolent movement. As she began living openly as a lesbian and writing about the connections she saw between feminism and nonviolence, she gained a new audience, primarily women, while losing the wider readership she had cultivated in the 1960s. Some men in the nonviolent movement continued to support her work, but it was pacifist women and those in the Women's and Gay Liberation Movements who helped archive her papers at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute. </p><p> Understanding Deming's activism helps to explain the oppressive role of heterosexism in the United States and highlights the possibilities and limitations of merging feminism and nonviolence, a strategy that has been neglected by historians of peace and feminism. Reclaiming Barbara Deming's perspective expressed in a quarter-century of writing about nonviolence, and investigating the continuity and change of her arguments, reveals a hidden history of the Women's Liberation Movement and the broader nonviolent movement. </p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomena of burnout and self-care as experienced by long-term anti-war activists. The current investigation of burnout and self-care was carried out using a qualitative transcendental phenomenological approach developed by Clark Moustakas. Interviews were conducted with eight adult men and women who had been active in the anti-war movement for at least ten years. The data collection consisted of in-depth interviews with open-ended questions regarding participants' experience of self-care and burnout in the process of anti-war activism. </p><p> Findings reveal that participants experienced burnout and self-care in much the same way as other professions. Participants experienced burnout within the following themes: stress, frustration and exhaustion; inner and outer pressure and responsibility; body shut-down; betrayal and isolation; and depression and grief. These activists experienced self-care within the following themes: enrichment of soul; satisfaction and celebration; great love and healing; awareness and keeping balance; deep understanding; and belief, enthusiasm and inspiration. In addition, the research uncovered the irony that while anti-war activism causes burnout at times, this same activism plays a critical role in self-care for the activist. Furthermore, findings lend support to previous studies of the experience of anti-war activists. Future research on this topic is suggested in several areas.</p>

<p> From 1990-2010 ecoterrorist attacks by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and Earth Liberation Front (ELF) created an anomaly in the U.S. with millions of dollars in property destruction. Interestingly, in a post 9/11 era, the FBI warns that the number one threat to U.S. national security is not religious terrorism, but rather environmental-group terrorism. When examining this topic further, there is a void in analysis between examining ecoterrorist attacks and U.S. public policy. Is there a statistical significant relationship between terrorist attacks by ALF/ELF and U.S. public policy towards terrorism? Is per capita income an influence on the attacks occurring in specific states? </p><p> This study seeks to analyze such relationships through an exploratory analysis and case study approach. I conducted a trend analysis on attacks by ELF/ALF from 1990-2010 and the subsequent adoption of U.S. public policy towards terrorism. I analyzed per-capita income by region and its relationships to attacks occurring. I performed chi</p><p>2 hypothesis testing in order to determinethe statistical significant relationships between ELF/ALF attacks/U.S. public policy and per capita income by State. </p><p> The findings of this study suggest that the definition of terrorism is ambiguous and can lead to alternative interpretations, which can affect U.S. public policy towards terrorism. Attacks by ALF/ELF are not deterred by U.S. public policy. Also, a majority of attacks by ALF/ELF are most likely to occur in states that rank in the top 20th percentile regarding per capita income and occur mainly on the west coast. The statistical significance of the relationships between ELF/ALF attacks and U.S. public policy demonstrate that these two entities are mutually exclusive. Per capita income levels by states and ELF/ALF attacks are also mutually exclusive. This study creates an improved understanding of what constitutes terrorism and an understanding of the radical elements in the environmental movement and its place in a post 9/11 America. The significance of this study is to provide a model for analysis of terrorist attacks and government responses and provide a framework of inquiry for the fields of terrorism,public policy and conflict studies.</p>

<p> International House at the University of Alberta (I-House) is a living-learning campus residence that aims to build a strong community from an intentionally diverse population of international and Canadian students. With global education programming that focuses on leadership through community building, I-House creates opportunities for new leaders to emerge in a culturally complex environment that is thought to foster global leadership development. Eighteen I-House alumni and residents who were recognized for their leadership contributions were interviewed in-depth to determine whether and how their experiences at I-House contributed to developing their global leadership capacities and to offer insight into best practice leadership behaviors for an intensive multicultural environment. It was found that the global education culture at I-House created a nurturing environment where diverse perspectives were actively valued; I-House leaders perpetuated mechanisms of active inclusion and support, and global leadership practices that were developed in I-House continued into leaders&lsquo; personal and professional lives.</p>

Even though scholars and researchers have suggested that the Liberian civil war arose as a result of socioeconomic and political inequalities, oppression, discrimination, and marginalization of a certain group of people, Social Dominance Theory (“SDT”) suggests an alternate understanding: social group-based hierarchy is produced and maintained in society by legitimizing myths. SDT explains how these legitimizing myths tend to produce discriminatory and/or anti-discriminatory policies that are endorsed by dominant and subordinate groups, which, if left unattended, eventually lead to conflict.

<p> Conflict management style preference and use of mediation within the Black population in the United States (US) is not well understood. The purpose of this study is to find out if there is a significant difference in conflict management style preference and use of mediation by African Americans and Afro-Caribbean (Jamaicans) living in the United States. Based on Hofstede's theory of individualism-collectivism cultural orientation, the US culture emphasizes individualism while Jamaica&rsquo;s culture emphasizes collectivism. Responses were collected from 108 African American and Jamaican respondents anonymously, of which 96 were deemed usable. The Rahim (1983) Organizational Conflict Management Style Inventory was used to collect data on the five styles and was analyzed with the appropriate statistic test. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the text-based data gathered from the two open-ended questions at the end of the survey. The thematic analysis revealed two major themes: personal and workplace relationship conflict situations. It is recommended that future study includes three groups of Blacks instead of two groups. The preferred conflict management style from the combined group result is the compromising style. A significant difference was found in the obliging and compromising conflict management styles between African Americans and Jamaicans. No significant difference was found between the groups&rsquo; conflict management style and willingness to use mediation. The open-ended questions and individual textual description of conflict experience and willingness to use mediation were used to clarify the quantitative results and provide a better understanding of the similarities and differences among people of African descent from different cultural orientations.</p><p>

<p> Information and communication technology (ICT) facilitates both the perpetuation of conflict and the coherence of peacebuilding efforts. ICT enhances the reach of belligerents motivated to promote conflict. ICT also accelerates the diffusion of narratives about the history, groups and motivations within conflict. These narratives promote rapid self-selection into identity groups within or on the periphery of a conflict, and reinforce motivations to continue or increase one&rsquo;s commitment to conflict. ICT also allows peacebuilders to coordinate, cooperate and assess their impact on a faster, more comprehensive and more accurate basis. Tools that promote situational awareness of peacebuilding efforts can enable peacebuilders to achieve efficiency and impact through specialization. ICT that facilitates awareness of shared problems and opportunities for collaboration can prompt cooperation among both international and local peacebuilders. ICT further enhances the scope, accuracy and speed of peacebuilding monitoring and evaluation efforts. Conflict and peacebuilding are activities defined by the motivations of groups. ICT does not change these motivations, but it affords their operationalization. The peacebuilding community must adapt to the challenges and opportunities posed by the introduction of tools which allow ideas to rapidly inspire larger groups to act and be accountable for activities in peace and violence.</p>

Abstract not available.

Living among the people of war has left an indelible mark on my life. During the Bosnian war, I journeyed with the faith group leaders of local ethno-religious communities in their struggle not only to survive the open conflict among their peoples but also to somehow find a way to rise above it in the hopes of sharing a more secure and prosperous future together. Over the course of time an identifiable impulse among deployed chaplains toward an external ministry of reconciliation began to emerge. Albeit, ad hoc in nature, it has raised questions of the viability of such ministry among local religious leaders in conflict zones and its strategic value with respect to the accomplishment of missions. As such, this thesis will reply to the following two-part hypothesis: (1) Among operational chaplains in conflict zones there is an emerging sense of agency to seed reconciliation by building relation among estranged religious leaders and their faith communities resulting in a need for a new self-understanding expressed both theologically and in praxis; and (2) the writings of Miroslav Volf and Vern Neufeld Redekop can provide the basis for a framework that will enable the creation of strategic and operational structures that will allow reconciliation praxis to be sustainable and to grow. The methodology unfolds naturally in the structure of the thesis itself: context, theory and application. In establishing context, relevant data from a variety of chaplaincy resources is consulted with a view to identifying the beginnings of what is believed to be a paradigm shift in operational ministry. Documented case studies from both the Bosnian and Afghan theatres of operation are offered as a means of establishing the context. Of significance, the theory developed here may be generalized to other contexts. The theoretical component initially draws on the theology of Miroslav Volf. His theme of exclusion discloses the evils frequently characteristic of ethno-religious groups in conflict, often manifested in alienation, subjugation, demonizing and, sadly, extermination of the other. Additionally, Volf's theme of embrace yields a theology of reconciliation whereby the estranged religious other, and by extension their respective faith communities, discovers the will to embrace in an effort to rise above conflict and/or alienation to that of relation. Redekop's contribution resides in his ability to transition from the theological to the theoretical, tangibly identifying the dynamics of deep-rooted conflict. Through dialogue the mimetic modeling of acceptance of all by the chaplain is seen to move the religious other beyond a wounded subjectivity toward mutuality. Relation building sees the eclipsing of the structures of mimetic violence (exclusion) by those of mimetic blessing (embrace). Such seeding of reconciliation enables the self a renewed vision of the humanity of the other. Application draws on both theology and theory bringing them together in the formulation of the External Ministry of Reconciliation Paradigm, a contextual theology supported by a theoretical component pertinent to the external operational ministry of chaplains among estranged local religious leaders and their faith communities. Theory and praxis are then applied to both the Bosnian and Afghan case studies. Concrete and strategic operational structures emerge from the ad hoc, as the sustainability of the seeding of reconciliation becomes a viable ministry for deployed chaplains in conflict zones. Pivotal to this thesis is the will to embrace, understood to be the in-breaking of transcendence as the agency of chaplains mimetically model mutuality in relation, a manifestation of grace. The rigidity of the satisfaction of strict (retributive) justice as a prerequisite to engagement is deemed an injustice in and of itself due to its holding hostage any movement toward relation. An attending to justice will come to fruition in the journey toward mutuality. The chaplain's genuine receptivity of the other, demonstrated through hospitality and the creation of a safe place in which to share, reflects his/her aspiration for the empowering of the other , lead[ing] to creative and ever-expanding options oriented toward life (blessing). Both ritual and symbol factor significantly into the establishing of operational structures drawn from the hosting culture: an interfaith celebration, the breaking of bread together and the Shura are presented as examples. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)