http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/igcc_cp/rss Recent eScholarship items from Conference Proceedings Tue, 15 Sep 2026 03:18:51 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/24m6w58t If we need a new language of national and international politics in order to think differently so as to cope with the dangers of a nuclear world, we also need a new language of policy analysis to examine the structures and processes by which defense policy in general, and nuclear policy in particular, is made. What is needed, as a start, is a new lexicon of basic terms derived from language and discourse but applied to the policy process. We might then begin to develop this new vocabulary into an effective critique of defense decision making in the modern or indeed, the post-modern state.  https://escholarship.org/uc/item/24m6w58t Mon, 13 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Cicourel, Aaron https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9fm317g5 The participation of states in a wide range of processes--economic, military, tecnological, cultural, and political--produces ever more intense forms of insecurity on many dimensions. This working paper explores some of the assumptions that underlie conventional discourse on national securityand how they intersect with modern international relations theory. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9fm317g5 Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Walker, R.B.J. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/95z4f5wp An critique of the applicability and influence of Clausewitz's <em>On War</em> to the national security policies of the Reagan era. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/95z4f5wp Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Gregory, Donna https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8md1w9xb "The Soviet threat" has provided a frame of reference for American politics since shortlyafter the end of World War II. Demonstrating, measuring, and responding to "the threat" have been subjects of intense concern and debate. The reality of "the threat" has been taken for granted. The paper examines the origins and reproduction of the Soviet threat" in American politics. This is not an analysis of whether or not the threat is or has been "real." Rather, it is a study of how Americans have come to regard it as real. The distinction is crucial: we are dealing with the sociology of knowledge and the politics of representation. We are interested in seeing how and why a society constructs an enemy. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8md1w9xb Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Nathanson, Charles https://escholarship.org/uc/item/83k4763m This paper is the beginning of an analysis of the nature of nuclear strategic thinking; its emphasis is on the role of a specialized language that I call "technostrategic." I have come to believe that this language both reflects and shapes the nature ofthe American nuclear strategic project; that it plays a central role in allowing defenseintellectuals to think and act as they do; and that all of us who are concerned about nuclear weaponry and nuclear war must give careful attention to the role of language we and others choose to use -- who it allows us to communicate with, and what it allows us to think as well as say. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/83k4763m Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Cohn, Carol https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bt3f8kj This article examines the mode of censorship and reportage of atomic damage in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in one of Japan's leading newspapers, the <em>Asahi Shimbun</em>, during the months of August and September 1945, as well as representative cases of censorship during the early years of the Allied Occupation to answer the question of why there was not more immediate "horror and repulsion sweeping over the rest of the world" as predicted by the Franck Report. By going back to the very start of press coverage of atomic damage we hope to be able to shed light on the evolution of nuclear discourse in Japan, and, to a lesser extent, the United States. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bt3f8kj Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Hook, Glenn https://escholarship.org/uc/item/712318n3 The function of the two-day conference "Psychological Research on International Conflict and Nuclear Arms Issues" and its proceedings was three-fold: 1) to stimulate interest on the part of psychologists at the University of California, and of psychologists more broadly, in research efforts that are addressed to problems of international conflict resolution, the prevention of war, and the fostering of peace; 2) to formulate research issues that are germane to the avoidance of war and the quest for peace; and 3) to stimulate greater support by foundations, institutes, and related organizations concerned with peace and conflict resolution, of psychological research in these areas. The specific task of the conference was to formulate "requests for research proposals" (RFPs) addressed to psychological aspects of conflict reduction and the environment and maintenance of peaceful relations between nations. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/712318n3 Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Feshbach, Seymour Singer, Robert https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6m7328x8 This study suggests the value of a "multi-feature/multi-dimension" method of discourse analysis (Biber in press) to the study of nuclear discourse by reporting some of the results of a pilot study of four different written texts about the nuclear dilemma. The quantitative results showthe texts to differ in their uses of groups of concurring linguistic features and motivate a microanalysis of the texts seeking to discern the author's underlying assumptions about the relations of the United States and the Soviet Union to each other and to their nuclear weapons. The results also extend the work of James Wertsch (1987) in constructing a typology of modes ofnuclear discourse by (1) describing concrete lexical and syntactic variation between nuclear discourse texts and between nuclear discourse, as a subgenre, and other written and spoken genres of English, (2) ascribing general rhetorical strategies to different authors' "styles" of nuclear discourse identified by the quantitative... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6m7328x8 Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Connor-Linton, Jeff https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5zq426wj What follows the Cold War? Even the fact that the question can be asked isastounding.  Shall the sequel be "peaceful competition" (Gorbachev), "cold peace and peaceful competition" (The New York Times editorial of August 10, 1987), "stable coexistence" (the American Committee on U. S.-Soviet Relations, including Arthur Macy Cox, William Colby, and George Ball)- or, grudgingly, "steps ... to reconcile vital U. S. and Soviet interests" (Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance)? There is dispute and confusion in both camps over what the new relationship is, what to call it. As the American establishment reorganizes its understanding of the world, theAmerican right is not silent. It is therefore useful to monitor the right's reactions to East-West rapprochement. In these notes, I look at the American right's responses to the East-West relaxation marked by the Washington and Moscow summits and the signing of the INF treaty. The discourse of the right in the first half of 1988 offers a preview... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5zq426wj Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Gitlin, Todd https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5383t78x <p>One aim of this paper is to begin to face the problem of how to relate an ethical, polltical, and critical perspective to the rational-technical means of analysis and description that have been developed by modern linguists.</p><p>The second (and principal) question that this paper seeks to pursue is the following. Given that any utterance is a highly complex event in which wording, phrasing, and text-organisation fulfill multiple and simultaneous functions, what details is it possible to pin down in a text in such a way that it is rational to make claims about and critiques of ideological or distorted communication?</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5383t78x Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Chilton, Paul https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5251g9c4 The concept of a "nuclear winter" has effected a turn in the discourse on nuclear war, which had long focused on imagery related to the initial blast and immediate after-effects. The paper discusses the origin of the nuclear winter theory and how it has influenced the nuclear debate. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5251g9c4 Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Joenniemi, Pertti https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hx8t76j Representing World Politics: The Sport/War Intertext with a Postscript on the Nuclear Question, Working Paper No. 9, First Annual Conference on Discourse, Peace, Security, and International Society https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hx8t76j Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Shapiro, Michael https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3jp684qf This paper traces the way in which "quality papers" such as the <em>Economist</em> helped to convince European opinion leaders of the advantages of President Reagan's so-called Strategic Defense Initiative. The paper proceeds in the following way: It first outlines the presentation of the issue, sketching typical references to SDI and the arguments in favor of it. It then compares the presentation of the protagonists: Reagan as the champion of the free world and Gorbachev as the new representative of Soviet Russia. Finally, it summarizes the metaphors of good and evil. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3jp684qf Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Zimmerman, Rudiger https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2zw6m1fn This paper discusses how the British popular press (tabloids) covered the visit of the British Prime Minister to Moscow for talks with the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, about arms control and other matters of mutual interest. It concentrates on the geopolitical significance of the visit and the coverage--their relevance to the prospects for nuclear arms reductions on both sides of the Iron Curtain. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2zw6m1fn Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Kay, Richardson https://escholarship.org/uc/item/23t2x103 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. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/23t2x103 Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Herken, Gregg https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0fj499jw <p>Taken from the content of the October 1992 meeting on Space Monitoring and Global Change, the contents of this IGCC paper range from means of assuring global cooperation in earth observation, potential systems and the practical difficulties of assembling and managing such systems.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0fj499jw Fri, 25 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 McElroy, John H Macauley, Mary K Williamson, Ray A Uhlir, Paul F https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9k79c3mq <p>The examination of the reasons behind the mid-1980s US withdrawl from UNESCO are the subject of this document. Citing an anti-US, third world centric bias, problems with enforcement and participation, the authors outline the findings of the 1986 IGCC Conference on the UNESCO crisis.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9k79c3mq Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 Kohn, Walter Newman, Frank Revelle, Roger https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8j4591mm <p>This publication dicusses the interplay between various political factions, the scientific community and the media regarding the rise and decline of the SDI program in the 1980s. It also explores the implications of ABM technologies and the responsibilities of various parties in its development.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8j4591mm Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 Gitlin, Todd https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80k1f2kq A survey of the work and role of Nuclear Disarmament bodies such as Mothers Embracing Nuclear Disarmament (MEND) and their means of influencing the Nuclear Issue in the west. Based on the assumption that nuclear wars are unwinnable, MEND and similar groups arose during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to attempt and influence policy from within nations. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80k1f2kq Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 Mehan, Hugh Wills, John https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7jn085nq This document examines the fundamental changes in negotiating techniques and posturing by the United States and USSR that appeared in the days following the Reykjavik conference on nuclear arms. Predictions and prospects follow. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7jn085nq Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 Mehan, Hugh Skelly, James M