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3 J. Conflict Resol. 1 (1959)

handle is hein.journals/jcfltr3 and id is 1 raw text is: Toward an international program of research on the handling of conflicts: introduction ERIK RINDE AND STEIN ROKKAN Institute for Social Research, Oslo, Norway, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway The papers assembled in this issue are, some directly, others indirectly, products of a Seminar on Conflict Research or- ganized during 1957-58 through a joint ar- rangement between the Institute for Social Research and the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Oslo. This seminar grew out of an established tradition of co-operation between United States and Norwegian social scientists. For a decade now, United States social psy- chologists and sociologists have taken an active part in the planning and conducting of empirical and experimental research in Oslo. A great variety of studies has been dis- cussed and carried out during these years, and it would be difficult to identify one dominant trend in these efforts. It is safe to say, however, that no theme has recurred so frequently in these deliberations as the concern for the dynamics of intergroup con- flicts: the concern to reach theoretical in- sights into the relationships between in- groups and out-groups, into the forces mak- ing for disruption, violence, and aggression as against the forces making for integration, toleration, and co-operation. This concern has manifested itself in the planning and conduct of a number of con- crete projects of empirical research: (1) a survey of nationalist-internationalist atti- tudes in an Oslo population (1); (2) a set of projective tests administered to ca- dets to measure reactions to ego-referred versus nation-referred threat (2); (3) a seven-nation survey of teachers' orientations to international threats (7); (4) an analysis of existing survey data on contacts and co- operative attitudes among the Scandinavian peoples (5); and (5) a program of elec- tional studies focusing on factors making for the acceptance versus the avoidance of intergroup conflicts (8, 9). This, however, is only part of the story. The discussions between Americans and Norwegians have also been heavily marked by a long-term concern with the clarification of problems of research strategy in this area of intergroup conflict: What lines of study should be given priority? What criteria can be used in decisions on such priorities? How can different types of methodology and de- sign be integrated in broad programs of research on these basic problems of human survival? A first outcome of these discus- sions was the Institute Prize Contest for the best paper on The Relevance of Research to the Problems of Peace. This contest met with a great deal of interest among scholars of many countries, and an impressive num- ber of manuscripts was received for con- sideration. The winning essays, the one by Quincy Wright, the other by Fred Cottrell, were printed in the volume Research for Peace in 1954 (10). An attempt was also

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