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2 J. Conflict Resol. 1 (1958)

handle is hein.journals/jcfltr2 and id is 1 raw text is: Introduction HERBERT C. KELMAN Harvard University The current issue of the Journal is de- voted to a series of papers which are pri- marily social-psychological in their orienta- tion. The papers cover a wide range of content, but they all focus-in one fashion or another-on attitudinal variables which may have a direct or indirect relevance to international affairs. They deal with such questions as the structure and determinants of various kinds of attitudes; the relationship of attitudes to decision-making processes and to the perception of international events; and the effects of communication and social contact on attitude formation and change. The term attitude is used here in its broadest sense. It refers to an individual's predisposition to react to a particular object or event (or class of objects or events) in a characteristic way. Typically, this predispo- sition has an affective component-the indi- vidual has a favorable or unfavorable feeling toward the object, a tendency to approach or avoid it, as well as a cognitive component -the individual has certain specific expecta- tions and evaluations with respect to the ob- ject. No sharp distinction is being made here between attitudes, opinions, beliefs, images: they all represent attitudinal variables. In short, we are dealing with predispositions, which an individual carries around with him from situation to situation and which help to determine, to a greater or lesser de- gree, his reactions to objects and events. There is a wide range of attitudes which may be elicited by international issues and events and which may determine the indi- vidual's perceptions and actions in a par- ticular situation of import to international affairs. Some of the more obvious areas of attitude that might be involved are (1) the individual's attitudes toward his own nation -his feelings about the role of his nation in international affairs, the importance of na- tional sov ereignty, the maintenance of na- tional prestige; (2) his images of other nations and their leadership; (3) his atti- tudes toward international organization and his general level of internationalism and world-mindedness; (4) his general ideol- ogy regarding alternative ways of resolving conflict (on interpersonal and intergroup levels) and his related views regarding war and peace; and (5) his expectations of the likelihood of war. These, of course, are merely examples of the many kinds of atti- tudes which may play a part in the inter- national behavior of the population-at-large and of the elites and decision-makers. In addition, other attitudes may be involved which derive from the particular role which an individual plays in the international proc- ess: for the citizen, for example, his attitudes toward the government and his conception of the role of the citizen in political action; for the decision-maker, his conception of public opinion and of the means of main- taining himself in power. Very few observers will deny that atti- tudes of these kinds exist and that they are activated by international events and situ-

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