Citation

Kriesberg L. Sociol. Rev. 1984; 32(3): 471-491.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1984, The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-954X.1984.tb00823.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Are we like the mothers and fathers at Jonestown, with the cyanide in place, rehearsing for suicide‐murder? Daniel Ellsberg (1981) observes that the marchers protesting nuclear weapons are doing what the mothers and fathers in Jonestown waited too long to say 'No! Not our children! This is craziness; we won't be part of it.' He writes that 'It is none too soon to be saying this to the President/Prime Minister/Chairman Jim Jones's of the world; nor is it, yet, too late.'

How did we get into a place that even resembles Jonestown: And more importantly, how do we get out of it? Social theory should help provide answers to such questions, but does not obviously do so. In the first part of this paper I discuss an emerging theoretical paradigm that has particular relevance for understanding how international conflicts increase and decrease in intensity. Then I apply that paradigm to instances of international conflict de‐escalation, focusing on declines in tension and hostility between the Soviet and American governments and the Israeli and Egyptian governments. Finally, I will point to some implications of the discussion for social theory and for international policy.