In foreign affairs these
days as Barbara Tuchman (1912–89), U.S. historian describes, Diplomacy
means all the wicked devices of the Old World, spheres of influence, balances
of power, secret treaties, triple alliances, and, during the interwar period,
appeasement of Fascism. But it is believed that Political Psychology would
help develop correct vision that would materially change the approaches
to diplomacy as well as psychological warfare according to universally
accepted principles of justice and morality.
Political Psychology
The field of political psychology has emerged
as an important area of scholarship in the social sciences and during past
12 years considerable advances have been made.
Psychoanalytic research on personality
and politics has been going on for the last several decades. Political
psychology now involves research on political belief systems, political
attitudes and behavior and, more recently, on political information processing
and cognition and emotion and their link to political cognition and behavior.
For many years, faculty and students from
several departments and colleges of the University of Minnesota shared
an interest in broad themes such as political tolerance, citizenship and
political participation, and political and social cognition and communication.
In recent years, as part of a new University Ph.D. Minor in Political
Psychology, a Political Psychology Proseminar
has emerged to provide a place where these ideas can be pursued in greater
depth. For details see http://www.polisci.umn.edu/polipsyc/
A number of books have been published about
Political Psychology and the topics covered include evolution of the individual
level traits, attitudes, values, decision making, ideology, personality
to the collective cognition, group thinking and identity, mass mobilization
besides political and religious violence, span models of the mass public
and political elites. The books and journals cover both domestic issues,
international relations, and foreign policy with increased focus these
days on causes and remedies for terrorism and fanaticism. However most
of such material is written by such authors whose opinions and thinking
are colored by the existing Foreign Policy of US which has recently come
under sharp criticism both in developed and developing world. If people
like Noam Chomski and Joseph S. Nye Jr. help develope courses for students
of Political Psycholoy that would emerge on a more realistic and objective
pattern.
The object of Political Psychology must
be to help in developing a correct political vision and strategy based
on universally accepted norms of justice rather than teaching the tactics
for advancing any political ideology or agenda like lawyers do, for the
benefit of our politicians or the country in a way detrimental to other
nations specially those non-alligned.
Justice begins with the recognition
of the necessity of sharing and restricting our freedom for those actions
that harm others. But this is always not possible. 'Do unto others as you
would that they should do unto you' is no more regarded as a golden rule.
And the greatest happiness of the greatest number has become the foundation
of morals and legislation.
It is said that no civilization … would
ever have been possible without a framework of stability, to provide the
wherein for the flux of change. Foremost among the stabilizing factors,
more enduring than customs, manners and traditions, are the legal systems
that regulate our life in the world and our daily affairs with each other.
But the law happens to be only one of several imperfect and more or less
external ways of defending what is better in life against what is worse.
By itself, the law can never create anything better. Conforming to the
law does not automatically ensure a better life for that, after all, is
a job for people and not for laws and institutions. The paradox of law
is that it is always not possible to make our material condition better
by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws or by not
having any law.
As Bertrand Russell says, "the fundamental
concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is
the fundamental concept in physics." And as Edward Said described, "Power,
after all, is not just military strength. It is the social power that comes
from democracy, the cultural power that comes from freedom of expression
and research, the personal power that entitles every Arab citizen to feel
that he or she is in fact a citizen, and not just a sheep in some great
shepherd's flock."
Power grows if that is used to help people
and nations. But it starts dwindling if it is used in bullying people and
nations and forcing on them arbitrary decisions which they regard as detrimental
to their interests.
Joseph S. Nye Jr. dean of the John F. Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard University discusses American supremacy
and how long it will last. The United States has unprecedented military
power, but the sword alone won't ensure American preponderance in the long
term, he argues. "If the United States wants to remain strong, Americans
need to pay attention to our soft power" -- our ability to attract others
to our way of life and get them to want what we want, Mr. Nye argues. "Soft
power arises in large part from our values," he writes.
Political Psychology kindles a new hope
that it would help the mankind in developing a correct political vision
that would pave the way for greater peace and tranquility on this planet
troubled by religious and political bigotry and perversion.
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