Protest Cycles and Political Process: American Peace Movements in the Nuclear Age

Since the dawn of the nuclear age small groups of activists have consistently protested both the content of United States national security policy, and the process by which it is made. Only occasionally, however, has concern about nuclear weapons spread beyond these relatively marginal groups, generated substantial public support, and reached mainstream political institutions. In this paper, I use histories of peace protest and analyses of the inside of these social movements and theoretical work on protest cycles to explain cycles of movement engagement and quiescence in terms of their relation to external political context, or the "structure of political opportunity." I begin with a brief review of the relevant literature on the origins of movements, noting parallels in the study of interest groups. Building on recent literature on political opportunity structure, I suggest a theoretical framework for understanding the lifecycle of a social movement that emphasizes the interaction between activist choices and political context, proposing a six-stage process through which challenging movements develop. Using this theoretical framework I examine the four cases of relatively broad antinuclear weapons mobilization in postwar America. I conclude with a discussion of movement cycles and their relation to political alignment, public policy, and institutional politics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68552/2/10.1177_106591299304600302.pd

Historical Perspectives on Global Conflict and Cooperation

On February 5-7, 1987, the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation sponsored a conference on "Historical Perspectives on Global Conflict and Cooperation." The aim of the conference was two-fold: to identify promising new areas for historical scholarship in the field of global conflict and cooperation, and to generate new ideas for specific research proposals that University of California historians might later present to IGCC for funding

Historical Perspectives on Global Conflict and Cooperation

On February 5-7, 1987, the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation sponsored a conference on "Historical Perspectives on Global Conflict and Cooperation." The aim of the conference was two-fold: to identify promising new areas for historical scholarship in the field of global conflict and cooperation, and to generate new ideas for specific research proposals that University of California historians might later present to IGCC for funding