US Peace Research Articles

From Arab-Israeli Conflict to Arab-Israeli Integration: A New Curriculum for Understanding the Contemporary Middle East

ABSTRACT This proposition paper introduces a novel curriculum designed to explore the trends of normalization and integration transforming the Middle East. The curriculum includes a comprehensive textbook and an accessible digital archive for scholars, students, and individuals seeking to deepen their understanding of this subject. The study investigates how academic politicization, biased content, and limited accessibility have contributed to a significant gap in comprehending Israel’s integration in the Middle East, particularly within US Middle East Studies. Our methodology involves a comparative analysis of the academic approaches of the Edward Said and Bernard Lewis “camps,” representing contrasting perspectives within US academia. Additionally, we assess the divergence between academic and state-led approaches to Middle Eastern integration in the United States. By identifying and analyzing six critical factors – impact on the field of Middle East Studies, impact on academic freedom, impact on religious tolerance, impact on regional stability, fresh research on the US Peace to Prosperity Plan and Arab Peace Initiative, and Israeli-Palestinian peace – this research underscores the necessity for the proposed curriculum and its resources. This curriculum aims to bridge the existing knowledge gap and provide a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of Middle Eastern dynamics.

The American Position towards the Establishment of the Palestinian State: From the Oslo Accord to the Deal of the Century (1993 – 2019)

The end of the Cold War period in the early 1990s crowned the United States of America (US) as the sole superpower in the world, allowing it to engage more actively in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Yet, there were initiatives by the US administrations that addressed the conflict since the 1970s. The consecutive US administrations of President Clinton, President Bush and President Obama made efforts in addressing the conflict but all failed to reach a settlement where negotiations were stuck during addressing the final status issues including the fate of the Israeli settlements and the status of Jerusalem. The Trump administration took a different radical approach and imposed a unilateral peace proposal that sided the Israeli narrative known as “deal of the century”. Under these US efforts, and under the claim that the Palestinians rejected most of these initiatives or were the side that failed these US peace initiatives, the question that arises in mind is that to what extent did the American position address the minimum aspiration of the Palestinian people in establishing their own independent state? Basically, the article suggests that the US was not a fair broker, it didn’t practice any form of pressure on the Israeli side but instead blamed the Palestinians – who are under the Israeli occupation -, the US didn’t accept the comments or the reservations of the Palestinians over its peace initiatives but accepted and adopted the Israeli comments, according to the US officials’ statements. The article writing methods generally follow the descriptive analytical approach and the historical approach along with highlighting the official statements and documents related to the topic.

Wilsonianism and self-determination without Wilson: United States and Estonia, 1918–1922

ABSTRACT The article argues that in 1919 several US Peace Delegation members in Paris acted in accordance with the ideology of Wilsonian self-determination. However, US policy toward Estonia and the other Baltic states wavered between regarding them as part of eastern Europe to which national self-determination could be applied or, contrary to that, as part of a unified non-Bolshevik Russia. US economic policy and, in particular, its relief activity supported the striving for independence of the Baltic states. Wilson came to support the ‘Russia option’ for the Baltic countries in the summer of 1919. The successor Harding administration opted for the alternative.

Foreign Policy and Critical Security: The US Foreign Policy Towards Israel

Security is defined differently by classical and critical perspectives. The debate on security between classical and critical perspectives illustrates the inadequacy of the classical tradition. This article provides the approaches of classical and critical perspectives towards security and their shortcomings. The article argues that critical perspectives are much more effective than the classical approach regarding the understanding and resolution of security problems. It provides a critical reformulation of Foreign Policy (FP) which has been based on the classical approach. The article also examines the US FP towards Israel regarding the Arab-Israel wars and the US peace efforts, recommending that the US adopt an FP based on critical security for these issues.

Yemen can't wait: A case study and insider's account of a unique success by the US peace movement to help end a calamitous war

AbstractPeace, disarmament, and anti‐war advocacy in the United States has a long and proud history, while facing longstanding challenges to its effectiveness given the overwhelming militaristic and undemocratic issues facing the country. A growing trend toward intersectionality is necessary and welcome, but not yet bearing much fruit in terms of progress toward de‐militarizing US foreign (and domestic) policy. However, peace forces within the United States are continuously at work despite the national government's foreign policy priorities. This article will provide a snapshot of the peace movement, its priorities, actions, and prospects for the future in addressing the perplexing and difficult path to peace in the war in Yemen.

Who were the US Peace Corps Volunteers and where did they serve?

Who were the US Peace Corps Volunteers and where did they serve?

Latin American Participation in the Olympics

In Olympismo: The Olympic Movement in the Making of Latin America and the Caribbean (2020), editors Sotomayor and Torres suggest that studying the Olympic Movement in Latin America is a way to explore the creation of their societies. but there are few publications examining how Latin American scholars consider their Olympic experience. Reviewing the growth of Olympic sports in Colombia provides a good test of this thesis. This study traces the development of Colombia’s involvement in sport from 1930 to 2022. We see that by competing in national and other western-hemisphere events, Colombian athletes have improved their performances; that the national government, supported by programs offered by the United Nations and the US Peace Corps, has encouraged sport development in education; that grassroots activities, such as boxing and cycling, have produced world-class athletes; and that women and Afro-Colombians have become celebrated competitors. From the vantage point of 2023, there is evidence that the desire to win Olympic medals has inspired positive social change and elevated and diversified athletic participation in Colombia.

Simple but not simplistic: Findings from a theory-driven retrospective evaluation of a small projects program

Background and purposeFrom 2010–2019, the United States Peace Corps Volunteers in Georgia implemented 270 small projects as part of the US Peace Corps/Georgia Small Projects Assistance (SPA) Program. In early 2020, the US Peace Corps/Georgia office commissioned a retrospective evaluation of these projects. The key evaluation questions were: 1) To what degree were SPA Program projects successful in achieving the SPA Program objectives over the ten years, 2) To what extent can the achieved outcomes be attributed to the SPA Program’s interventions, and 3) How can the SPA Program be improved to increase likelihood of success of future projects. MethodsThree theory-driven methods were used to answer the evaluation questions. First, a performance rubric was collaboratively developed with SPA Program staff to clearly identify which small projects had achieved intended outcomes and satisfied the SPA Program’s criteria for successful projects. Second, qualitative comparative analysis was used to understand the conidtions that led to successful and unsuccessful projects and obtain a causal package of conditions that was conducive to a successful outcome. Third, causal process tracing was used to unpack how and why the conjunction of conditions identified through qualitative comparative analysis were sufficient for a successful outcome. FindingsBased on the performance rubric, thirty-one percent (82) of small projects were categorized as successful. Using Boolean minimization of a truth table based on cross case analysis of successful projects, a causal package of five conditions was sufficient to produce the likelihood of a successful outcome. Of the five conditions in the causal package, the productive relationship of two conditions was sequential whereas for the remaining three conditions it was simultaneous. Distinctive characteristics explained the remaining successful projects that had only several of the five conditions present from the causal package. A causal package, comprised of the conjunction of two conditions, was sufficient to produce the likelihood of an unsuccessful project. ConclusionsDespite having modest grant amounts, short implementation periods, and a relatively straightforward intervention logic, success in the SPA Program was uncommon over the ten years because a complex combination of conditions was necessary to achieve success. In contrast, project failure was more frequent and uncomplicated. However, by focusing on the causal package of five conditions during project design and implementation, the success of small projects can be increased.

How Bruce Lee almost Met Chou En-Lai: Another View - from a Peace Corps Volunteer in Eritrea

Part 2 is an account of the author's two-year tenure as a US Peace Corps Volunteer and subsequent visits to Ethiopia as a US election observer, Fulbright lecturer/researcher, and conferee. The content focuses on circumstances in which the author found herself and how she dealt with them as an outsider and as an American of Chinese descent living and working in Africa. She also alludes to aspects of her Peace Corps experience in Part 1 as they pertain to issues not clarified in Part 2. And occasionally she makes references about events occurring on dates not indicated within the specified timeframe for they were relevant to the discussion at hand. Topics include: Foreigner in America, why the author joined the US Peace Corps, Walkout in Virginia, Peace Corps Service, Pebbles and Stones, Almost Meeting Premier Chou En-lai, Separate but not equal, Brown like us. Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee in Ethiopia, and general observations of her Peace Corps years.

How Bruce Lee almost Met Chou Enlai: Another View-From a Peace Corps Volunteer in Eritrea

Part 2 is an account of the author's two-year tenure as a US Peace Corps Volunteer and subsequent visits to Ethiopia as a US election observer, Fulbright lecturer/researcher, and conferee. The content focuses on circumstances in which the author found herself and how she dealt with them as an outsider and as an American of Chinese descent living and working in Africa. She also alludes to aspects of her Peace Corps experience in Part 1 as they pertain to issues not clarified in Part 2. And occasionally she makes references about events occurring on dates not indicated within the specified timeframe for they were relevant to the discussion at hand. Topics include: Foreigner in America, why the author joined the US Peace Corps, Walkout in Virginia, Peace Corps Service, Pebbles and Stones, Almost Meeting Premier Chou En-lai, Separate but not equal. Brown like us. Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee in Ethiopia, and general observations of her Peace Corps years.

Expulsion of the Governmental International Volunteers During the Cold War Comparing Five Cases of Expulsion of the US Peace Corps from Latin America

Expulsion of the Governmental International Volunteers During the Cold War Comparing Five Cases of Expulsion of the US Peace Corps from Latin America

РАПАЛСКИ УГОВОР (1920) У ОЧИМА АМЕРИЧКЕ ШТАМПЕ THE TREATY OF RAPALLO (1920) IN THE LIGHT OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN PRESS

The policy of US President Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference and his uncompromising attitude in regard to the Adriatic question is a topic that still interests researchers. The paper aims to shed light on the US public opinion about the Adriatic question and conclusion of the final Treaty of Rapallo (1920) between Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The paper relies on the most prominent US newspapers with the highest circulation and progressive magazines of the time, archival records and contemporary literature. A particular focus is placed on the evolution of views of the US press about the conflict between Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes concerning disputable territories in Dalmatia, and about the participation of the US peace delegation and President Wilson in the negotiations and definitive resolution of the Adriatic question.

The US Peace Corps as a public diplomacy strategy

The US Peace Corps has been operating programs globally since 1961 with an enduring mission toward international friendship and world peace structured around clear goals that emphasize cross-cultural learning objectives. Little is known about whether the program has a positive effect on US soft power abroad and, if so, the magnitude of that influence. This paper examines the impact of Peace Corps programming in foreign states on US public diplomacy objectives. The primary research aims to understand the relationship between indicators of a foreign population’s favorability toward the US and Peace Corps participation to determine the effects of program size as well as program presence and removal. Pew Research Center US favorability scores were analyzed alongside Peace Corps volunteer cohort sizes between years 2004 and 2016 among 20 sample countries. The findings indicate a positive and statistically significant relationship between the size of the Peace Corps volunteer cohort and US favorability. Each additional volunteer increases favorability toward the US by 0.12 points. The results are robust to the inclusion of additional soft power factors. Supplementary findings illustrate that the removal of Peace Corps programming may adversely impact favorability toward the US, establishing the negative soft power effect of ceasing participation.

Gil Fagiani: Friend, Mentor, Activist, Poet

Research Article| January 01 2021 Gil Fagiani: Friend, Mentor, Activist, Poet Stephen Siciliano; Stephen Siciliano STEPHEN SICILIANO has been writing professionally for forty years. As a journalist he has worked for the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., L.A. Business Journal, L.A. Weekly, L.A. Downtown News, and Bloomberg Law. He is the author of two novels, Vedette or Conversations with the Flamenco Shadows, and The Sidewalk Smokers Club. His manuscript on the life and times of Rep. Vito Marcantonio, The Goodfather, is being readied for publication. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Gene Bild; Gene Bild GENE BILD, a Chicago-born “red diaper baby,” has worked for more than seven decades to realize the aims of his extended family of progressive social activists. As an eight-year-old, he marched for nuclear disarmament, and as a sixteen-year-old, he was arrested at sit-ins to desegregate Chicago public schools. In Chicago’s Grant Park, he protested amid tear gas during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. After White Lightning disbanded, Bild campaigned for the late Harold Washington, the first Black mayor of Chicago. After earning an MS at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Bild taught math for twenty-six years in a public high school. There he helped his students form a Gay-Straight Alliance chapter and his colleagues organize a teachers’ union. Now retired, Bild spends his spare time encouraging select politicians to join him in retirement. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Gerald Meyer; Gerald Meyer GERALD MEYER, a founding member of the faculty of Hostos Community College (CUNY), authored Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician 1902-1954 (SUNY Press, 1989), co-edited The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture (Praeger, 2003), and has published more than ninety articles and reviews on a wide range of subjects. Meyer serves on the editorial boards of Socialism and Democracy and Science and Society, has appeared in a number of documentaries, reviews manuscripts for publication, and lectures widely. Meyer has been politically active since he was a teenager. Currently he is co-chair of the Vito Marcantonio Forum. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Roger D. Harris; Roger D. Harris ROGER D. HARRIS attended Cornell University as an undergraduate and the University of California, Berkeley, for graduate school. He did community organizing in East Harlem with Gil Fagiani. He taught political science at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. A certified wildlife biologist, he is now active working on conservation and human rights issues, including with the Task Force on the Americas, US Peace Council, and the Council of Hemispheric Affairs. He regularly writes for Counterpunch, MintPress News, Dissident Voice, and Transcend Media Service. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google James Tracy James Tracy JAMES TRACY teaches at City College of San Francisco. He is the co-author of Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times (Melville House, 2011), and No Fascist USA! The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today’s Movements (City Lights, 2020). He authored Dispatches Against Displacement: Field Notes From San Francisco’s Housing Wars (AK Press, 2014). He was part of the Italian-American Political Solidarity Club, which mobilized Italian Americans against racism and produced the book Avanti Popolo: Italian-Americans Sail Beyond Columbus (Manic D Press, 2007). Tracy is the co-founder of the San Francisco Community Land Trust and serves as the political director for the American Federation of Teachers 2121. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Italian American Review (2021) 11 (1): 55–67. https://doi.org/10.5406/italamerrevi.11.1.0055 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Stephen Siciliano, Gene Bild, Gerald Meyer, Roger D. Harris, James Tracy; Gil Fagiani: Friend, Mentor, Activist, Poet. Italian American Review 1 January 2021; 11 (1): 55–67. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/italamerrevi.11.1.0055 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressItalian American Review Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2021 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2021 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Ecocultural adjustment: revisiting acculturation through a Peace Corps sojourn

ABSTRACT This performative autoethnography examines extant theories of cultural adjustment through an ecocultural lens. I revisit my 26-month sojourn with the US Peace Corps in Malawi, Africa, and my return to the United States in the context of sojourner acculturation, critiquing the often conventionally anthropocentric frame of cultural adjustment and reconceptualizing the process as ecocultural adjustment. Ecocultural adjustment theory calls attention to the impact of the environment on the transitioning human body and points to the profound need to reimagine the cultural adjustment process as one of both mind and body and culture and ecology.

First person profile: C. Norman Coleman, MD: A leading radiation and medical oncologist, Dr. Coleman has worked to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and quality of life on a global level.

First person profile: C. Norman Coleman, MD: A leading radiation and medical oncologist, Dr. Coleman has worked to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and quality of life on a global level.

Menachem Begin and the Israel-Egypt Peace Process: Between Ideology and Political Realism

Menachem Begin and the Israel-Egypt Peace Process: Between Ideology and Political Realism

The US Peace Diplomacy in Afghanistan

In 2001, following the Taliban’s ousting from Afghanistan, the United States signed the Bonn Agreement directly with an Afghan delegation. Nineteen years later, in a bid to end the longest war in American history, the Trump administration signed the “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan” with the Taliban, this time circumventing any direct involvement from the Afghan government. Is the US-Taliban deal a major diplomatic solution to a protracted conflict that signifies the importance of diplomatic solutions to military action? Or is it a war-failed and diplomacy-bound-to-fail scenario? This paper analyzes the issues and challenges facing the peace process in Afghanistan, with a focus on the diplomatic efforts by the United States.

Encapsulation, Professionalization and Managerialism in the Peace Corps

ABSTRACT: Much recent work has explored the implications of the pervasive professionalization that has occurred in recent decades across occupations and throughout organizational life. Using the case of the US Peace Corps, the current article expands this conversation into the institutionally complex world of international development organizations. Drawing on interview, documentary, and observational data, its goal is to offer a contextual analysis of how professionalism is understood and practiced within international development. I show how the application of managerialist models have led to an “encapsulation” of ideas of professionalization, and demonstrate how managerial encapsulation unfolds in practice. This analysis allows me to consider how encapsulation challenges and strains professional norms among Peace Corps staff. The article concludes with theoretical and practical implications.

Opposition to War: An Encyclopedia of US Peace and Antiwar Movements

Opposition to War: An Encyclopedia of US Peace and Antiwar Movements