US Peace Research Articles

Models, methods, and progress in world politics: a peace research odyssey

Part 1 Traditional policy analysis and prescription: the error term and accident in nuclear war armaments, security and prosperity - an imaginary congressional speech arms control negotiations and the Third World negotiation by proxy - a proposal negotiations, initiatives and arms reduction. Part 2 Beyond policy prescription: conflict research, political action, and epistemology social science and social problems campaign for a US peace academy a Manhattan project for war prevention. Part 3 The research outlook and options: the incomplete theorist - insight without evidence variables, indicators and data - the measurement problem in macropolitical research militarized interstate crises - the BCOW typology and its applications, Russell J.Leng and J.David Singer cumulativeness in the social sciences - some counterprescriptions. Part 4 the research programme and some results: periodicity, inexorability and steersmanship in international war, J.David Singer and Thomas Cusack system structure, decision processes and the incidence of international war alliance aggregation and the onset of war, J.David Singer and Melvin Small capabilities, allocations and success in militarized disputes and wars 1816-1976, Frank W.Wayman, J.David Singer and Gary Goertz. Part 5 Implications and recapitulation: research, policy and the correlates of war the responsibilities of competence in the global village.

Perspectives: Responsibilities of the US Peace Movement

Perspectives: Responsibilities of the US Peace Movement

Chronic Diarrhoeal Illness in US Peace Corps Volunteers

Chronic diarrhoea of unknown aetiology is increasingly recognized as a problem in international travellers, and has been reported in US Peace Corps volunteers. In December 1987, we surveyed all Peace Corps medical officers to determine the magnitude of this problem and obtain preliminary data on potential risk factors. A rate of nine cases of chronic diarrhoea per 1000 volunteers per year was reported by medical officers representing 4607 volunteers in 43 countries. The highest rates were reported in Haiti, where one-third of the volunteers reportedly developed chronic diarrhoea during their two-year stay, as well as in Central and West Africa and Nepal. Volunteers were reported to drink unpasteurized milk routinely in eight (42%) of 19 countries with greater than or equal to one case of chronic diarrhoea during the previous two years, but in only two (11%) of 19 countries where none of the volunteers had chronic diarrhoea (odds ratio = 6.2, p = 0.06, Fisher exact test). Intensive prospective studies in areas of high incidence are needed to define this syndrome further.

US Peace Institute

Anthropology NewsVolume 30, Issue 5 p. 39-39 US Peace Institute First published: May 1989 https://doi.org/10.1111/an.1989.30.5.39.4AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume30, Issue5May 1989Pages 39-39 RelatedInformation

Serologic Evidence of Cryptosporidium Infection in US Volunteers Before and During Peace Corps Service in Africa

To obtain prevalence data on Cryptosporidium infection in healthy US adults and to determine how often Cryptosporidium infection occurs after relocation to a situation of potentially great exposure, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for anti-Cryptosporidium IgM or IgG was used to examine serum from 75 US Peace Corps volunteers before overseas service and after up to two years in West Africa. Of the volunteers, 32% had detectable anti-Cryptosporidium IgG initially, suggesting that infection sometime in life is common. After six weeks, one year, or two years overseas, 5% (1/19), 14% (8/56), and 13.6% (3/22), respectively, became newly IgG positive. This implies that the risk of acquiring Cryptosporidium infection and its associated diarrhea is real for travelers and temporary workers in endemic areas. Persistence of IgG and/or IgM response for 12 months or more occurred in some volunteers, although the significance is unclear.

Epidemiological surveillance in Peace Corps Volunteers: a model for monitoring health in temporary residents of developing countries.

In 1985, the US Peace Corps developed a computerized epidemiological surveillance system to monitor health trends in over 5500 Peace Corps Volunteers working in development projects in 62 countries worldwide. Data on 31 health conditions and events are collected monthly from each country; quarterly and annual incidence rates are then calculated, and the analysed data are distributed. In 1987, the most commonly reported health problems were diarrhoea (unclassified), 48 cases per 100 volunteers per year; amoebiasis, 24 per 100 volunteers per year; injuries, 20 per 100 volunteers per year; bacterial skin infections, 19 per 100 volunteers per year; and giardiasis 17 per 100 volunteers per year. Tracking each of these common problems, as well as other selected health conditions, guides design of more specific studies and disease control efforts. Health problems with very low rates (less than 1.0/100 volunteers/year) include hepatitis, schistosomiasis, non-falciparum malaria, and filariasis. The epidemiological surveillance system provides the health data needed to plan, implement, and evaluate health programmes for Peace Corps Volunteers, and provides a model for surveillance in other groups of temporary and permanent residents of developing countries.

Exploring intercultural communication through literature and film

Abstract: Students of intercultural communication have utilized almost exclusively the writings of social scientists. Literature (prose fiction, poetry and biography) and film have been little used except to illustrate what social scientists have discussed. The potential of literature and film for our understanding of intercultural relations is conisderable, however, and can be explored both through the analysis of cultural patterns expressed in the works, and in the analysis of intercultural themes, of conflicts and resolutions by the characters, in novels, biographies and films. A recent study of the latter kind identified several significant ‘coping mechanisms’ of ethnic minorities in the United States which distinguished those who prevailed in a world of cultural pressures from those who did not. Such attitudes and abilities had been overlooked in the methods and goals of most social‐science writings. Moreover, there is evidence that literature majors in college have performed better in some intercultural encounters—as US Peace Corps volunteers—than have graduates of programs in the social or physical sciences.There are many problems, however, in drawing upon literature and film. One problem is the possibility for gross distortion of a people by a writer or filmmaker whose audience has no means of checking against reality. These images, in fact, can receive such wide acceptance that future audiences expect to have this image confirmed in subsequent works (‘standardization of error’). Even very good works, when they achieve the status of ‘classics’, lead readers and audiences to want more books and films which reconfirm a simplified and outdated image. This works against smaller, poorer and non‐English‐speaking societies especially, as only those works which fit the expectations of English‐speaking readers or viewers elsewhere are likely to be translated and published or produced.Literature allows for a much more varied manner of story telling than does the conventional social‐science genre. It allows for more varied points of view, more emotional involvement, and the taking of a stand on issues; in addition, it can draw upon all of the resources that evoke an experience rather than being about experiences. We need to utilize more fully the power of the image and word in our understanding of intercultural communication.

Military Expenditures and Economic Growth in Less Developed Countries: An Augmented Model and Further Evidence

A study of the impact of military expenditures on economic growth and development examines the differences in the results of previous studies which led to contradictory conclusions. The authors find that these differences are due to sample variations, specificational choices, and the different time periods examined. The data indicate that there is no consistent, statistically significant connection between military spending and economic growth. Augmentation of the models suggests that military expenditures neither help nor hurt economic growth to any significant extent. 2 tables.

W National Park in Niger—a case for urgent assistance

W National Park is shared by Niger, Upper Volta and Benin, and is recognized as being one of the most important parks in West Africa by virtue of its size—11,320 sq km—and its diversity of habitats and species*. Both its proximity to the rapidly growing capital of Niamey, Niger, and the burgeoning trans-Saraha tourist traffic give it great tourist potential. The park and its wildlife, however, are under constantly increasing pressure from poaching, illegal grazing, uncontrolled bush fires, the possibility of phosphate mining, and the lack of financial and material means to combat these problems. The author is a US Peace Corps biologist who worked in Niger for four years, for part of the time attached to the IUCN/WWF aridlands project. He describes conditions and problems in the Niger sector of W National Park and discusses possible solutions.

Hazards of Goliath in the Nuclear Age: Need for Rational Priorities in American Peace and Defense Policies

Since, in this nuclear age, Goliath's hazards are the hazards of the entire world, this paper examines the major irrationalities in the military defense policies of the US as well as their frightfully dangerous consequences. It also examines the arms race itself and pinpoints the varieties of irrationality and inhumanity that it feeds, especially within all the major military powers. The paper argues that as it is the US, not the USSR, that is the front runner in the arms race that now threatens a universal holocaust, so it is the US that must take the lead in recovering rationality and a sense of responsibility. It further argues that conventional nationalism and policies of competitive military preparedness have become obsolete; that defense and peace-building are one and the same international challenge to human reason and morality, and that therefore the problematics of peace and defense requires a clear recognition of the international public interest, which entails joint agendas, joint research, joint international action to defend endangered populations and the human habitat. It counsels the US peace movement to broaden its base by championing defense as well as peace, but defense with alternative objectives, strategies and means. The paper concludes by discussing practical alternatives in today's struggle for peace and defense, suggests new ways of conducting negotiations, and pleads for the establishment of UN-affiliated international defense agencies.

Peace Corps Volunteers in Rural Botswana

Hoyt S. Alverson is Associate Professor in the Department o f Anthropology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. He has conducted research and has lived among the Tswana both in Botswana and in South Africa for three years. His work there concerns the effects of colonial industrialism on the values and identities o f the Tswana. This paper 1s based on work conducted for the US Peace Corps, Botswana, June 3 through June 29, 1974. The author thanks Mr. Charles Frankel, Country Director, US Peace Corps, Botswana, for the opportunity to undertake and publish the results of this investigation. I N 1974, I WAS ENGAGED by the United States Peace Corps to assist it in developing a training program to help Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) adjust to, and effectively live within, the confines of Botswana, a newly developing African country. The majority population of Botswana, the Tswana, are known through the writings of Isaac Schapera (1940, 1953, 1955). The Tswana are a constituent of the congeries of southeastern Bantu-speaking peoples. They were, until one hundred years ago, a predominately agricultural people with a very important ancillary tradition of animal (especially cattle) husbandry. Since 1867 they have been incorporated more and more into the vortex of colonial industrialism in southern Africa, a process which continues apace today. The Peace Corps has been in Botswana only a few years, but has quickly established a conspicuous presence there through its relatively large numbersabout 100 to 200 volunteers at any one time serve a country with a total population of less than 750,000. Also, PCVs usually work either in traditional villages or within small industrial, administrative, or commercial centers, where they form a highly visible constituency of daily community life. Despite the commitment of time and resources to prepare the volunteers to cope with the exotic surroundings found in Botswana, it became apparent to the Peace Corps that many of the volunteers were not able to meet the three Peace Corps goals as effectively as they might. In particular, some were unable to purvey the skills which they were presumably there to offer. Failing to complete contracts; retreating to enclaves of European settlement; not mixing, nor otherwise establishing rapport with the local people; failing to learn the local language; not understanding the setting of their job, and as a consequence, becoming spiteful of and bitter toward many individuals with whom they had to work; untimely nervous breakdowns; these were among the symptoms of anxiety and stress shown by volunteers. Part of my job was to work with the volunteers and secondarily with certain host-country nationals (Tswana) to discover whether there existed some fairly straightforward reasons for this state of affairs. Since at this time I had completed 15 months of close participation in a very small and rather isolated Tswana village with my family, I had quite a reservoir of remembered anxieties, doubts, and blunders (as well as successes) to draw upon in formulating hypotheses for beginning my work with the PCVs. In this paper I report two aspects of this investigation: first, the nature of, and reasons for, using a phenomenological approach; and second, the substance