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Toward a Theory of Peace TOWARD A THEORY OF PEACE TOWARD A THEORY OF PEACE The Role of Moral Beliefs Randall Caroline Watson Forsberg Edited and with an introduction by Matthew Evangelista and Neta C. Crawford CORNELL GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES MARIO EINAUDI CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON “Toward a Theory of Peace: The Role of Moral Beliefs” by Randall Caroline Watson Forsberg © Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997 Editors’ Note and Editors’ Introduction copyright © 2020 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. First published 2019 by Cornell University Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Forsberg, Randall, author. | Evangelista, Matthew, 1958– editor. | Crawford, Neta, editor. Title: Toward a theory of peace : the role of moral beliefs / Randall Caroline Watson Forsberg; edited and with an introduction by Matthew Evangelista and Neta C. Crawford. Description: Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2019. | “An edited version of the thesis by the same name submitted by Randall Caroline Watson Forsberg in May 1997 to the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was studying for her Ph. D.”—Editors’ note. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019025199 (print) | LCCN 2019025200 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501744358 (paperback) | ISBN 9781501744365 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501744372 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Peace—Moral and ethical aspects. | War—Moral and ethical aspects. | Violence—Moral and ethical aspects. Classification: LCC JZ5581 .F67 2019 (print) | LCC JZ5581 (ebook) | DDC 172/.42—dc23 LC record available at https://Iccn.loc.gov/2019025199 LC ebook record available at https://Iccn.loc.gov/2019025200 Cover photo: One million protesters marched in New York City to support a nuclear arms freeze; June 12, 1982. Unknown photographer. Contents Editors’ Note vii Editors’ Introduction: Randall Forsberg and the Path to Peace ix Preface xxvii Acknowledgments xxix Abstract xxxi Part I TOWARD A THEORY OF PEACE 1. The Idea of a Theory of Peace 3 2. Conditions for the Abolition of War 13 Part II SOCIALLY SANCTIONED VIOLENCE 3. The Roles of Innate Impulses and Learned Moral Beliefs in Individual and Group Violence 41 4. Socially Sanctioned Group Violence: Features, Examples, and Sources 65 5. Ritual Cannibalism: A Case Study of Socially Sanctioned Group Violence 91 6. Sanctioned Violence, Morality, and Cultural Evolution 128 Appendix: The Debate on the Existence of Cannibalism 147 Notes 169 Bibliography 187 About the Author 221 About the Editors 223 Index 225 v Editors’ Note Toward a Theory of Peace: The Role of Moral Beliefs is an edited version of the thesis by the same name submitted by Randall Caroline Watson Forsberg in May 1997 to the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was studying for her PhD. The thesis was certified in June 1997 by Forsberg’s thesis supervisor, Joshua Cohen, then professor of philosophy and political science, and accepted by Barry R. Posen, professor of political science and then chairman of the Graduate Program Committee. The current volume was copyedited, corrected, and reformatted for publication by Sandra J. Kisner, administrative assistant at the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Cornell University, under our oversight. It is published with permission from MIT. We are grateful above all to Sandra for her meticulous work; to Hirokazu Miyazaki, former director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Stud- ies, for endorsing publication of this book in the Cornell Global Perspectives series and providing funding for the workshop associated with its release; to Dean Smith, director of Cornell University Press, and his staff for their support; to Jonathan Miller of the Einaudi Center for his editorial and production help, including with the online version of this book; to Jill Breithbart for the cover design; to Elaine Scott for administrative support at the Reppy Institute; to Judith Reppy for general wisdom, for editorial advice, and for preserving the archive of the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, upon which we drew for our introductory essay; to Agnieszka Nimark for preparing the archive for deposit at Cornell University Library; and to Evan Earle, Cornell University Archivist, for welcoming the collection and making it available to the public. Matthew Evangelista, Professor of Government, Cornell University Neta C. Crawford, Professor of Political Science, Boston University vii Editors’ Introduction: Randall Forsberg and the Path to Peace For Randy Forsberg, information and argument were power—the power to open and change minds, the power to build a movement.1 Randy is probably best known as a founder of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, a movement that acknowledged Americans’ fear of nuclear holocaust and articulated the hope that nuclear war could be averted in the 1980s. The Nuclear Freeze movement inspired one of the largest political demonstrations in US history, when up to a million participants rallied in Central Park, New York on 12 June 1982. This was part of a larger political movement that pushed Ronald Reagan’s administration toward the negotiating table with the Soviet Union, where he collaborated with Mikhail Gorbachev to end the Cold War.2 The June 12th demonstration was only surpassed in early 2003 when millions of Americans protested the imminent US attack on Iraq. Randy protested that war as well. Randy epitomized the practice of Habermasian discourse ethics well before Jürgen Habermas theorized it.3 She believed in evidence, the force of the better argument, the use of reason in the search for truth, and the essential constitutive role in democracy of the commitment to nonviolence. But these were more than theoretical commitments. In a life cut short by cancer at the age of 64, Randy pur- sued a range of interconnected activities in trying to bring about a world without war. She was an analyst of military data, engaging public speaker, prolific writer, director of a research institute, mentor to young researchers and aspiring activ- ists, write-in candidate for the United States Senate, and university professor. In her scholarship and activism, Randy practiced a form of argumentation that engaged the other respectfully and always used her brilliance honestly, without deception, meeting the claims of the other with better arguments. Randy was persistent, precise, and clear. And she had a more than slight streak of perfec- tionism, which is, in part, why her carefully crafted dissertation took so long to complete and why she intended to revise it before turning it into a book (as she explains in her preface). In 1997, Randy completed her manuscript, Toward a Theory of Peace: The Role of Moral Beliefs and submitted it as her dissertation, earning her PhD in Politi- cal Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Toward a Theory of Peace is an ambitious attempt to identify the conditions under which the insti- tution of war could be brought to an end. It draws on an extensive program of ix x EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION research into the phenomenon that Randy called “socially sanctioned violence” and focuses on the role of moral beliefs. Aside from excerpts published in an anthology in 2005, just two years before Randy’s death, the work has not been available until the publication of this book, although the year after her disserta- tion was finished Randy published a related, short pamphlet, Abolishing War, in the form of a dialogue with Elise Boulding, a sociologist and founder of the field of Peace and Conflict Studies.4 In our view, this volume marks an important contribution to the literature on social change and especially to the goal of eradicating the scourge of war. It should be of interest not only to scholars but also to activists and ordinary citizens concerned about mass violence, who should welcome this thoughtful, erudite, and well-grounded analysis. Randy viewed the dissertation as part of a larger project, where she would develop a “theory of the conditions under which world peace might be established and maintained.”5 Because Randy’s theory of peace was so closely linked to her military analysis and disarmament activism, we devote much of this introduction to summarizing her career, before turning to an overview of the book. The larger theory of peace is implicit in the outline of Randy’s career and the way Randy worked. Early Life and Career Randall Caroline Watson was born in Huntsville, Alabama in July 1943, which at the time of her birth was rife with racism overlaid by a veneer of Southern charm epitomized by the stately mansions that can still be seen in the center of town. Early on, her father Douglass Watson, the well-known Shakespearian and television actor, taught Randy to memorize her speeches. Randy usually spoke without notes and clearly loved the English language. She was educated at Bar- nard College in New York City, where she majored in English. In her first job after graduating college in 1965, Randy taught English, and throughout her life she was a fierce editor. Randy was always careful to say what she meant and generally meant what she said. Randy married Gunnar Forsberg in 1967 and moved to Sweden where she began working at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, founded by the Swedish government the year before. SIPRI’s mandate was to contribute to “the understanding of the preconditions for a stable peace and for peaceful solutions of international conflicts.”6 In many respects that mandate became Randy’s life’s work. SIPRI tended to focus on data collection and special- ized studies of particular topics related to armament and disarmament, and it soon began and continues today to publish an authoritative yearbook, tracking EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION xi the trends in various military forces and spending.
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