Introduction: Conflict Resolution and Social Justice

A daunting obstacle to clarity in formulating ideas about conflict resolution and social justice is the fact that each of these terms has multiple meanings. There is widespread recognition that social justice is a multivalent phrase. Commentators since Aristotle have written of distributive, restitutive, retributive, procedural, and relational justice, and each of these types has been further subdivided to reflect differences in social philosophy and in common usage. Less well recognized is the ambiguity of conflict resolution, a term that refers to a mélange of theories and practices that, although interrelated, do not constitute a cleanly demarcated and coherently defined whole. To name a few large subdivisions in this evolving field, we are accustomed to speak of alternative dispute resolution, principled negotiation, relational transformation, public dispute resolution, analytical conflict resolution, and individual or communal reconciliation processes

Changing Demographics and the Middle East

In this lecture in the Israel and Palestine "Looking Ahead Twenty-five Years" series, Dr. Richard L. Rubenstein discusses the changes in the demographics and the significance of the growth of Islam in Europe

Will the President be able to resolve the Middle East crisis?

In this lecture in the "Israel and Palestine" Looking Ahead Twenty-five Years series, Richard L. Rubenstein offers a profound reflection on the political and religious developments of Israel and Palestine and the moral dilemmas that result from it

Conflict Resolution and Distributive Justice: Reflections on the Burton-Laue Debate

Excerpt From its inception, the field of conflict resolution has appealed strongly to practitioners, researchers, and theorists interested in social betterment. Most conflict resolvers would probably agree that their efforts are motivated, at least in part, by the conception of a Good (or at least a Better) Society considerably less violent and contentious, more peaceful and cooperative, than the existing social order. Many would also affirm that in order to reach this goal, the sources of violence and contention, which include cultural norms sanctioning or glorifying violence, invidious and discriminatory isms (racism, sexism, etc.), gross socioeconomic and political inequities, and over-reliance on formal, adversarial decision-making procedures need to be eliminated or, at least, mitigated. And many would assert, in addition, that the methods of making these changes should be consistent, so far as possible, with the aims sought to be achieved: that is, they should rely on nonviolent conflict resolution.

Activation of G protein-coupled receptors entails cysteine modulation of agonist binding

The increase of the affinity of agonists with an increase in pH and experiments using thiol-specific reagents indicate that G protein-coupled receptors contain an ionizable cysteine residue at the ligand binding site. Since treatment of receptors with reducing agents produces functional activation and potentiates agonist stimulation, it is likely that this free sulfhydryl modulates receptor activation. We have derived a two-state acid-base model for cysteine modulation of ligand binding which leads to a description of ligand efficacy. We have shown that pH-dependent binding of agonists is closely correlated with measurements of ligand efficacy at the 5-HT2A receptor. In general, efficacy is determined by the preference of a ligand for the base of the receptor. Efficacy may also be described in thermodynamic terms as the coupling free energy involving a ligand and the acid and base states of the receptor. Molecular modeling of the third transmembrane domain of the 5-HT2A receptor, which contains a conserved cysteine, shows that efficacy is determined by the difference between the electrostatic interaction energies of a ligand with the acid and base forms of the receptor model. The difference in interaction energy between the two forms of cysteine makes the largest contribution to this electrostatic interaction energy difference. Therefore, the cysteine makes the largest contribution to ligand efficacy. Using this approach, we can distinquish between the efficacies of agonists with varying molecular structures and account for the differences between the properties of agonists and antagonists

Responsibility for Peacemaking in the Context of Structural Violence

“They cry Peace, Peace, but there is no peace.” Jeremiah’s complaint resounds loudly in a period in which many of the most intractable social conflicts are products not just of prejudice, malice, or misunderstanding, but also of the normal operations of structurally violent systems. This essay begins by outlining and modifying the theory of structural violence originally presented by Johan Galtung. It goes on to describe several types of conflict-generating systems, including the capitalist economy that produces crime and mass incarceration and the neo-empire that produces terrorism and the “war on terror.” Finally, it inquires into the responsibility of would-be conflict resolvers for system transformation, stressing the need for new forms of conflict resolution theory and practice, and suggesting several processes that might help to satisfy this need

Technology, Unemployment and Genocide

The impact of technology on the processes of production affects every aspect of American life, and most especially the long-range employment prospects of the American worker

Halo globular clusters observed with AAOmega: dark matter content, metallicity and tidal heating

Globular clusters have proven to be essential to our understanding of many important astrophysical phenomena. Here we analyse spectroscopic observations of ten Halo globular clusters to determine their dark matter content, their tidal heating by the Galactic disc and halo, describe their metallicities and the likelihood that Newtonian dynamics explain their kinematics. We analyse a large number of members in all clusters, allowing us to address all these issues together, and we have included NGC 288 and M30 to overlap with previous studies. We find that any flattening of the velocity dispersion profiles in the outer regions of our clusters can be explained by tidal heating. We also find that all our GCs have M/L_V < 5, therefore, we infer the observed dynamics do not require dark matter, or a modification of gravity. We suggest that the lack of tidal heating signatures in distant clusters indicates the Halo is not triaxial. The isothermal rotations of each cluster are measured, with M4 and NGC 288 exhibiting rotation at a level of 0.9 +/- 0.1 km/s and 0.25 +/- 0.15 km/s, respectively. We also indirectly measure the tidal radius of NGC 6752, determining a more realistic figure for this cluster than current literature values. Lastly, an unresolved and intriguing puzzle is uncovered with regard to the cooling of the outer regions of all ten clusters.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Genocide and the Modern Age: Etiology and Case Studies of Mass Death

https://surface.syr.edu/books/1023/thumbnail.jp