Mexico is not a country at peace. Despite the government's fight to restore stability, violence has erupted since 2006 in several areas of the territory. According to Vygotsky's social constructivism and to Galtung's integral perspective of peace, some elements of peacelessness are informed by values, perceptions, and conceptions about violence and peace. These topics have not been qualitatively investigated in Mexico. The purpose of this case study was to explore the process involving the social construction of values, perceptions, and conceptions in regard to organized criminal violence and peace possibilities in Mexico. Research questions focused on the role of mass media and oral conversations in the social construction of perceptions about the government, criminal organizations, and peace. This study employed semistructured interviews of 15 residents from a neighborhood in a large Mexican city. A purposeful sample stratified by gender, age, and profession, according to the neighborhood demographics, was used. Data from the interviews were coded for patterns using preexisting theory-based categories along with new emerging categories. Findings showed that among these residents, the process of social construction of perceptions was primarily formed through individual experiences and observations, and nurtured by conversations. Social constructors, such as traditional mass media, were much less important. Residents constructed their perception that the basic causes of criminal violence are rooted in the structures of the political and economic system, which, if correctly addressed, would foster peace. This study contributes to positive social change.by informing regional policymakers about the need to design local policies directed towards mediating structural and systemic transformations that are respectful of experiences and needs of citizens.

Through the use of semi-structured and narrative interviewing, this study considers the perspectives of twelve newcomer women engaged in organizing and facilitating community activities with other newcomer women. The participants shared their views on the challenges faced by newcomer women, and the strength that these women access through community support. The study is grounded in an analysis of literature derived from such interdisciplinary sources as Peace and Conflict Studies, feminism, anthropology, and community-development. While newcomer women are faced with numerous hardships and losses, the participants – everyday peacemakers – emphasize the importance of empowerment. They engage in creating spaces for women to gather, form relationships, and benefit from economic and social development. Through this work, the women foster a form of ‘constrained empowerment’ that exists within the context of various structural barriers to well-being. Despite being constrained, this form of empowerment provides the foundation for social change, and social justice.

Through the use of semi-structured and narrative interviewing, this study considers the perspectives of twelve newcomer women engaged in organizing and facilitating community activities with other newcomer women. The participants shared their views on the challenges faced by newcomer women, and the strength that these women access through community support. The study is grounded in an analysis of literature derived from such interdisciplinary sources as Peace and Conflict Studies, feminism, anthropology, and community-development. While newcomer women are faced with numerous hardships and losses, the participants – everyday peacemakers – emphasize the importance of empowerment. They engage in creating spaces for women to gather, form relationships, and benefit from economic and social development. Through this work, the women foster a form of ‘constrained empowerment’ that exists within the context of various structural barriers to well-being. Despite being constrained, this form of empowerment provides the foundation for social change, and social justice.

This dissertation studies public attitudes toward nuclear weapons. When do people become more willing to endorse a preemptive nuclear strike against a foreign country? Utilizing theoretical insights from international relations, comparative politics, and social psychology and original experimental survey data from Israel and the U.S., this dissertation aims to answer these questions. Influential strands of scholarship argue that both the public and political elites have internalized anti-nuclear norms. The critics, however, assert that the moral nuclear taboo lacks robustness. The dissertation joins this debate by offering a novel theoretical framework informed by terror management theory (TMT) and suggests that people are more likely to support extreme forms of warfare (e.g., nuclear strikes) when reminded of their own mortality. Thus, consequentialist factors, such as perceived utility, and psychological factors, such as moral foundations theory and TMT can be causal mechanism in the support for nuclear weapons. The findings support this argument as respondents who are treated with increased salience of their own mortality are more likely to support the use of nuclear weapons. Further, the results show that political ideology, threat perception, and religion are all significant factors in shaping individuals' attitudes towards the use of nuclear weapons. Lastly, the work suggests that Israelis in particular tend to support hawkish national security options at the aggregate level. There is a positive effect of conflict events on Israelis' support for hawkish policies. Overall, this dissertation makes a substantial contribution to our current understanding of public opinion on the use of nuclear weapons in a first strike and why nuclear weapons disarmament, elimination, and non-proliferation is deeply challenging.

For decades, unresolved conflicts have negatively influenced the general public through increased violence, overwhelming the judicial system. A literature review suggested that between 15% and 20% of conflicts result in an impasse. This study was designed to understand how the implementation and application of the transformative meditation technique (TMT) is used to resolve conflicts. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the interpretation and implementation of TMT. This qualitative case study was grounded in the conceptual framework of interest-based negotiation (IBN) principles. The research questions focused on mediators' perceptions, interpretations, and depth of knowledge, as well as the effectiveness of the transformative mediation technique (TMT) as an improvement over evaluative or facilitative techniques in resolving conflicts and reducing impasses. Twenty face-to-face interviews were conducted with purposefully selected mediators. Data were coded and analyzed to identify recurring themes: interests, needs, responsibility, relationship, empowerment, problem solving, and negotiation. The findings of the data analysis revealed that mediators were familiar with TMT; interpretation and implementation varied with mediator style. Moreover, most mediators were not highly educated in TMT. In addition, it was found that simply having knowledge of TMT did not prepare mediators to apply the technique appropriately. Mediators were more attracted to the hybrid transformative mediation technique (HTMT). This study has the potential to create positive social change by reducing the number of litigations, giving relief to the overburdened justice system, and thus decreasing the use of limited courts resources.

Decisionmakers in organizations like the Department of Defense and the State Department rely on accurate information to develop strategies to engage foreign populations. There is gap in understanding how perceptions are formed in religious adherents, specifically understanding how Muslims determine if violence is an acceptable or unacceptable behavior. Informed by Hobföll's conservation of resources theory of stress, the purpose of this case study was to identify and understand the religious and secular factors that influenced a group of Sunni Muslims in Western Michigan to accept or reject violent behaviors. Research questions focused on how this population's perception of violence was influenced by religion, various sources of information and threats of loss. Convenience sampling was used to identify the participants for this study. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews with 10 Sunni Muslims living in Western Michigan. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and the data were inductively coded and examined to identify trends in the information. While identity and religion were important to understanding how Muslims view the acceptability of violence, perceptions of the justice system's effectiveness also emerged as an important factor in understanding an individual's tolerance for violent behaviors. The results of this study may contribute to positive social change by informing leaders who engage large Muslim populations about how perceptions of identity and justice system efficacy impact the acceptability of violent behaviors.

Peace negotiation is a complex political process used to end a conflict and establish peace. This thesis provides a qualitative analysis of the FARC-EP documents in preparation for the peace negotiations. Using Neocleous concept of pacification and Hannah Arendt’s concept of the political, I explored the ways in which the FARC-EP resist liberal peace by re-politicizing the conflict, addressing the sources of the inequalities and injustices generated by and for capitalism, and implying alternative ways of thinking about politics, power, justice and security to transform society. The analysis revealed that the FARC-EP thinks about peace and conflict resolution as a political process requiring social transformation of deep structural conditions through negotiation and deliberation in order to create a more just society. The FARC-EP conceptualizes peace as a complex political process that must be under local ownership and domestically rooted. In doing so, the FARC-EP addresses the root causes of the conflict by calling for transformative justice, replacing national security with integral security, extending politics beyond representative democracy and demanding equality to end the power imbalances that are so prominent in Colombia. By negotiating with the Colombian state, the FARC-EP accepts that not all their proposals will be implemented, given that it is in fact a negotiation. As a result, I conclude that peace negotiations can have the opposite effect and pacify political-military organizations in order to protect capitalist order after armed conflict has failed to succeed.

Yes

This paper analyzes humanitarian assistance to complex humanitarian emergencies to understand why suboptimal outcomes result even when humanitarians have ethical principles and good intentions. It focuses on the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, and Médecins Sans Frontières to understand their core principles before looking at how these principles operationalize during emergencies. Challenges arise due to complex relationships with donors, local actors, and recipients, along with issues of marketization and competition. This paper’s case studies of the post-genocide Rwandan refugee crisis and post-9/11 Afghanistan explore how humanitarian principles clash with such dilemmas. In the end, humanitarian organizations are often unable to adhere to principles in the midst of crises and make compromises of competition and complicity that lead to suboptimal outcomes for the people they are trying to help. Looking to modern emergencies in Syria, Yemen, and South Sudan, it is critical to understand these dynamics and seek to improve institutions of humanitarian aid to make assistance actually beneficial for those in need.

ABSTRACT The use of the arts as a tool for conflict transformation, or what has been called arts based peacebuilding, is a new and emerging field. Yet, there is sparse empirical evidence on its outcomes. The Nile Project, a musical collaborative from East Africa that brings together musicians from all of the countries that border the Nile River, is aimed at finding a solution to the dire water conflict and crisis in the region. This study aims to explore how their collaborative process of creating and performing music despite their linguistic, cultural, musical, and political differences, can illuminate how music can be used to address conflict. Using a combination of collaborative qualitative and arts-informed research methodologies, original members of the collective as well as the co-founder were interviewed. Observations were also done of the musicians' rehearsals, performances, and classroom visits at a New England University and during a musical residency in Aswan, Egypt. Findings suggest that an outcome of the Nile Project's work is the development of relationships, deeper learning, particularly about other Africans, and that the process of making music with those from diverse musical traditions can act as a way to practice peacebuilding skills: creating unity, while honoring diversity. This study seeks to add to a limited amount of research documenting the arts in peacebuilding suggesting that music might be an effective tool for transforming conflict.