Behavioral Psychology and the Anti-Nuclear Anns Movement Christopher M

30 &h4vior AnalysislindSociRl Action- Vcdume 5, Numbfm, 1 /if 21 1986 Contingencies to Prevent Catastrophe: Behavioral Psychology and the Anti-Nuclear Anns Movement Christopher M. Murphy" State University of New York at Stony Brook l Abstract On the Importance of the Peace Movement An active public strongly opposed to the nuclear arms race Is the anti-nucleararms movementourbesthopefor deve may offerthe besthope to preventweapons escalation and thereby loping solutions to the nuclear dilemma? Certain perspectives decrease the riskofnudearioar4 In spiteofMarxist interpretations to from the political left contend that it is not. These arguments thecontrary 1 thispaper argues thatthepeace movement isnecessary generally involve a Marxist interpretation; maintaining that the and potentiaUy powerful in creating social change. Some possible arms raceis fueledby the capitalist system. of military-industrial applications of behavioral psycJwlogy to the peace movement are partnership especially prevalent in the United States, examined. Knowledge about response allocation; self-control, and Lengthy supportive evidence is available. For example, the promotion ofnoveltyin responding maybolstertheeffectiveness historically the U.s. military-industrial partnership in traduced of public involvement r At the same time, efforts to create social the Atomic Bomb, the Hydrogen Bomb, the Submarine Laun chnnge providea proving ground for beluwioral principles. ched Ballistic Missile, and Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles. In fact; exceptfor theSoviet introduced Inter continental Ballistic Missile, the U .. S. arms development com munity has generatedvirtuallyeverymajor advancementin the Introduction nuclear arms race. Furthermore, the U.S4 economy is especially dependent In the1950' S T some patential goals of a behavi 0 ral technol on military spending to support advanced technology. In the ogy included that "men be happy, informed, skillful, well be 47)~ periodsince theinventionof theatomic bombapproximately42 haved and productive" (Skinner, 1955-56, p. In the 1980'81 percent of the U.S. scientific workforce has been engaged in theworldis faced.with firststrikenuclearweapons, an anusrace military related projects (ReppyJ 1985). As a direct result of this escalating into outer space, and knowledge about the devastat profligacy~ there are hundreds of thousands of people, both mil ing climatic effects of nuclear war. Thus; a more fundamental itary and civilian} with a vestedpersonal interestinmaintaining goalof a behavioral technology is continued survivalin a peaee-. thearms race. SimilarseH-interest exists for those who invest in ful world. Those who work to develop and apply the science of weapons industries. Like addicts suffering withdrawal, econo behavior possess skills crucial to this goal. mies dependent upon military spending "fixes" would suffer Onealternative to idlenessis theapplication of behavioral immense short term crises if the anns race were halted (see psychologyinactive oppositionto thenuclear arms race ~ Attack Nevin, 19821 for discussion of the arms race as a self...control ing such a large scale social problem would advance the under paradigm). standing of behavioral principles as well. But before exploring the possible gains of such a partnership, the need for the anti... nuclear arms movement, and its potentialeffectiveness require more careful examination. .,This paper isbased, in part, onasymposium presentationatthemeetings oftheAssociationfor BehaviorAnalysis~ Mny i 1985 ~ Theauthorwishes tothankJohn Neuin for his supportive enrou ragement in. the preparation ofthis work; and Karen Emmons andAdele Hayesforhelpful comments anan earlier draft. Requests for reprints shouldbe sent to: Christopher M. Murphy, Department of Psychology, SUNYat 5ttmyBrook, Stony Brook, New York; 11794. 1 Throughout the paperthe terms "peace activism'! and "anti-nuclear arms activism" are used. interchangeably. It could be argued that these terms shouldbeusedseparatelyr asNanti...nucleararmsactivism" implies amore restricted focus thandoes"peaceacdvism. h Yet,evenif all nuclear weapons wereeliminatedduringtime of peace, whatwould stopgovernmentsfrom building new oneswith the adventof war?The knowledge of physicsand chemistry needed to design and build new bombs wiDnot disappear with disarmament. Therefore, the eventual goal for both "peace" and I~ anti nuclear arms" activists must be the abolition not only of the accoutrements of war, but of war itself CONTINGENCIES TO PREVENT CATASTROPHE~ I Christopher M, Murphy 131 Tworelated conclusions canbe drawnfrom the beliefthat phasize the rationale of peace activism in general. Given poten the capitalistmilitary-induetrial partnership is primarily respon... tially infinite costs, rationality dictates the use of whatever sible for maintaining the arms race. First, as in any liberal social means presently available in designing a world free from the reform, the prospect that the peace movement might prolong threat of nuclear war4 the death of a malignant capitalist system without ever solving The argument remains, however, that calls for social re long term social problems must be considered (Rakes, 1980). form within theU.5. capitalist economy will nevergenerate the Band-aid solutions will not suffice if the arms race is somehow counter-momentum needed to haltthe arms race.Thereare sev.. inherently maintained by capitalism. Reorganization of society eral reasons why this might not be true. The first is historical would be the only solution. Since this question is presently un precedence, from other social movements as well as from the answerable, the potential gains ofthe peace movement mustbe anti-nucleararmsmovement. In recentdecades civil rightsactiv ... carefully balanced against the potential long-term costs of per ists and feminists have made considerable progress in promot petuating a system which drives the arms race. ing the rights of the disenfranchised. Although a great deal of The second related conclusion is that only a popularwork racism and sexism remain embedded in the fabric of American ing class revolution could generate the counter-momemtum culture.. tangible strideshavebeen made. Creatingsocialchange necessary to halt the arms race (Ulman, 1986)~ This argument is a slow and difficultprocess. Othersocialmovements teach us rests in part on the notion that the structure of a capitalist econ that change can be echieved, but only through many years of omy could not withstand, and therefore would not allow, the concerted and creative effort radical change needed to end strategic arms production. In the struggle against the arms race, social activism has While just treatment of the subtlety and complexity of yielded some perhaps less revolutionary yet significant results. these positions is not within the scope of the present paper ~ The popular movement opposed to atmospheric testing of nu nevertheless they clearly challenge the peace movement to de clear bombs is generally credited with a major role in bringing fend calls for socia Ichange within the capitalis t system. To begin about the Threshold Test Ban Treatyin the early 1960's (Boyer, such a defense one could argue that the collapse of capitalism 1982). Similarly, in the late 1970's and early1980's popular activ may not be on the immediate horizon. Yet current exigencies ismhelpedputthenuclearfreeze high on the Americanpolitical demand immediate action onthe problem of nuclear arms. The agenda. 1980'8 are critical years in the arms race. Due to an American Although it can be argued that these successes are small administration which does not supportarms control OJ restraint in weapons development {Scheer, 1982)J the arms race is now and insignificant, the magnitudeofpublicactivity in opposition to the arms race has been growing in recent years. Millions of escalating into outer space. American and European citizens have shown a deep commit This escalation will bring virtually total automation of the ment to ending the arms race through social action, The award decision to fire nuclear defenses. Certain aspects of strategic ing of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize to DrS4 Lown and Chazov. nuclear defense, specifically a ttack of boost phase rockets~ antinuclear arms activist physicians, likewise highlights public would have to be capable ofalmost instantaneous response to supportfor this cause. As yet unseen results rnaybe ingestation r Soviet missile launch. The prospect of computer malfunction Extensivepublicinvolvementis causefor optimism; giventhatit mcreases dramatically with the complexity of such a system is tempered by a realistic assessment of the effort required to (Lin, 1985).In addhion, Soviet leadersperceive strategicnuclear foster social change. defense as an element of first strike capability, thereby adding another level of fear and mistrust to the existing acrimony. The potential effectiveness of the peace movement is fur.. ther evidenced by the threat it represents to established struc Hope should not be lost though, because many years or tures of power. On May 9J 1982; the Washington Post quoted a even decades will be needed to produce a space-based missile memorandum from Eugene Rostow, director of the U.S. Arms defense. In fact, the Pentagon has estimated that eight separate ControlandDisarmamentAgency, to NationalSecurityAdvisor technical problems, each as large in scope as theManhattan Pro William Clark about the growing anti-nuclear arms movement. ject, mustbe solved in

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