Why we need to establish international political psychology

A combination of Psychology with International Relations yields important results and ideas for improving the international world. This chapter proposes to establish International Political Psychology as a discipline with the purpose of harvesting ideas, theories and concepts that derive out of a combination of the above disciplines

World polity: anatomy of and arguments for regional and global integration

This article is inspired by taking sort of a medical view on the international political world2. A medical view here means that first we need to understand the anatomy of the organism that we observe, i.e. the world. Secondly, we need to make some diagnoses and prognoses about possible threats to the functioning of this organism as well as how to restore health. In Political Science terms this means identifying threats to security, peace, survival and wellbeing of states, nations, and individuals, as well as the whole, and to identify possible political solutions to these threats. The first part of this article will present the history of global integration and why it is necessary to prevent war and to facilitate peace at the example of Europe. Europe is here regarded a greenhouse for global integration. This part describes the attempts at integration before the major wars in Europe in the last centuries, the reasons for these wars as the failures or lack of integration, and the way it was overcome. The second part of this article will present an ideal type global political anatomy. This will be illustrated with graphics, which are thought to make the global political system better understood by visualising key aspects of it. The third part of this paper will discuss the nature of reality, which is important to understand conflicts in today’s world, as ‘virtual’, material, social and cultural. It will present a challenge to Alexander Wendt’s recent idea of reality as a hologram and discuss how civilizational conflicts, as described by Samuel Huntington, can possibly be resolved by creating a global demos (polity) by establishing a global parliament. As the basis for the latter argument, finally, this paper will present and analyse the results from the survey on global citizenship. Global demos here refer to the idea of a global polity, or identification of the global population with the global, or to say it alternatively: as global citizens. It is argued that, if we would have a global demos, this would facilitate global integration, which is necessary for peace. For example, further global integration towards a world state with a world parliament, is thought to be only possible and sensible if there is a reasonable global demos to build this entity on.For this reason, this article presents results from a survey run at the University of Hull in 2016 intended to measure global citizenship

Holistic healing for hearing voices: self-care for patients with schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is one of the more severe mental illnesses which poses immense costs to societies and patients. Worldwide it is believed that about 52 million individuals suffer from this illness. Treatment options have vastly improved, but more is still possible. As patients often struggle with social and professional goals and their physical health, what is suggested here are additional holistic health approaches, life skills tips, and spiritual approaches to overcome the limitations posed through this illness as much as possible

Insights from para-psychology for international relations

Western International Relations (IR) has much to learn from the so-called ‘para-sciences’. At the one hand, they can instruct us about the role of consciousness and its connection to peace. At the other, we can learn from them that humanity is connected and not separated as mainstream ideas of individualism hold. The para-sciences in particular have so far led a life in the shadows of the Western scientific discourse. While popular with the general population, as the success of publications such as What the Bleep testify, they have not been taken seriously by mainstream science, and especially so IR. This has a number of reasons. One is that IR mainstream still attempts to present itself against the image of a ‘soft science’ and struggles to get recognition for its robustness and credibility. It competes with the natural sciences for authority, but oftentimes fails in that respect. This essay will present some of the findings of the para-sciences, in particular para-psychology. It will connect them to the less mainstream accounts in Western philosophy and IR on consciousness and unity

Abolishing the security dilemma: Why we need to integrate the militaries

This article argues that the Security Dilemma can in fact be abolished by integrating the militaries into one common global organisation, possibly under one common command. The existence and workings of NATO are an approximate example of this ideal in a geographically limited space. For illustrating this argument, this article discusses the logic of the Prisoners Dilemma, as the intellectual model underlying the Security Dilemma, and proposes an alternative version of the Prisoners Dilemma. It is then argued that the Security Dilemma only persists in a politically and economically ever farther integrated world because the international militaries are not integrated and hence partial anarchy persists at least in the military realm. The solution to remaining international conflicts, such as arguably one between the West and Russia recently, would be to expand NATO to include ‘threatening’ states’ militaries until all militaries are joined in a global organisation. Finally, revised non-violent functions for NATO, as well as a global welfare state and an early warning system for civil wars, are proposed and discussed

Theory of Telepathy: an Alternative Interpretation of Psychotic Experiences and Some Tips for Recovery

This article looks at mental illness, in particular psychotic mental illness, such as schizophrenia, and spirituality. It argues that the phenomenon of ‘voice hearing’, which is present in schizophrenia (but also other mental illnesses) can be understood at least in part as telepathy and can be explained in a spiritual framework. For this purpose, literatures from the parapsychological field as well as spiritual accounts are used. Both fields recognise the phenomena of voice hearing and telepathy, while so far they have not claimed that mental illness can be explained as a spiritual phenomenon. This explanation, however, resembles more the pre-modern interpretations of this illness. This article will conclude with a list of recommendations and tips for recovery from schizophrenia and psychosis

Die "War on Terror"-Rhetorik auf dem Prüfstand

'Die Vereinigten Staaten führen einen Krieg der Worte. Ihre Rhetorik dient als Grundlage für die Strategien im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus. Aus den Beschreibungen des Phänomens leiten sich die tatsächlichen politischen Aktionen ab. Laut den Ergebnissen aus der neuen Kriegs- und Terrorismusforschung sind dabei drei Möglichkeiten der Beschreibung oder Deutung denkbar: a) Der internationale Terrorismus wird in fremden Nationen verortet, b) er kann as primär transnationales Netzwerk beschrieben werden oder c) als Phänomen, das hauptsächlich in den jeweils angegriffenen Staaten selbst verortet wird. Entsprechend der Deutungen und Wahrnehmungen bezüglich des internationalen Terrorismus ergeben sich logisch verschiedene Strategien zu seiner Bekämpfung. Die Strategie der Vereinigten Staaten leitet sich aus der Verortung des Terrorismus in fremden Nationen, den so genannten 'haven states', ab. Aus diesem Verständnis ist sie zumindest logisch nachvollziehbar. Die Kriegs- und Terrorismusforschung kommt jedoch zu abweichenden Beschreibungen und damit auch Empfehlungen zu der Bekämpfung von Terrorismus. Dies lässt die Einschätzung zu, dass die Strategien der Vereinigten Staaten nicht auf eine rasche Verminderung des internationalen Terrorismus angelegt sind, sondern auf einen langfristigen Konflikt speziell mit Staaten des Mittleren und Nahen Ostens.' (Autorenreferat)'The United States is waging a war of words. Rhetoric forms the basis for the strategy in the war on terror. From the descriptions of terrorism itself the actual political activities can be explained. According to recent war and terrorism studies, three alternative descriptions are possible: international terrorism is found in foreign nations, can be perceived as a transnational network, or is seen as within the attacked nations themselves. It depends on which perspective is taken on international terrorism which strategies will be employed in order to fight it. The strategy of the United States is based on the prescription that terrorism is mainly to be located in foreign nations, so called haven states. This understanding makes the strategies of the US at least logical. Results from war and terrorism studies differ in their explanations and thus recommendations on how to fight international terrorism. This allows for the interpretation, that the strategies of the United States are not designed to reduce international terrorism but for long term military engagement especially in the Middle East.' (author's abstract

War, population growth, inequality, and the history of the world state idea: The causes of world wars and global governance evolution over the long duree

Humanity has experienced three major periods of war – 500Bc the Greek wars, 1600AD the Thirty Years War and 1900AD the Two World Wars. These were the most significant times of war in human history, as far as is known to Western science. IR scientists do not know much about other regions in the world. All of these major periods of war brought forth the classics in the field of IR (International Relations) and the main political inventions, for example Hobbes with the principle of sovereignty, or Kant with the ideas for global democratic organisation, or the invention of the discipline of IR and the UN. All of these periods of war have been preceded by sudden massive population growth. This article will sketch the evolution of war and politics over the longue duree. For this purpose, the history of war and the history of political thought will be discussed. As causes for the major wars, sudden massive population growth is identified. How the latter causes war is theorised in the paper, as far as possible. Population is still massively growing in the times of the 21st century, and should be kept in reasonable limits. Arguments for protection of childlessness will be presented at the end of this article