Peace Research and Politics within the Field of Societal Demands
| Author | Egbert Jahn |
| Published date | 01 September 1983 |
| Date | 01 September 1983 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234338302000306 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Peace
Research
and
Politics
within
the
Field
of
Societal
Demands
EGBERT
JAHN
Peace
Research
Institute
Frankfurt,
West
Germany
Peace
Research
in
the
Federal
Republic
of
Germany
has
been
supported
since
1970
by
all
political
parties,
employers’
organizations,
trade
unions
and
churches,
the
background
being
international
détente.
At
the
end
of
the
seventies
the
relative
consensus
of
the
social
forces
began
to
break
down.
Three
political
ten-
dencies
emerged,
each
formulating
different
demands
towards
peace
research:
détente
politicians,
con-
servative
opposition
to
détente,
and
the
peace
movement
opposing
the
arms
race.
Peace
research
should
avoid
being
a
servant
of
one
of
these
political
trends;
it
should
try
to
find
an
audience
among
the
whole
of
society
for
the
two
purposes
of
peace
research:
the
everlasting
’realpolitische’
task
of
war
prevention
under
the
present
intergovernmental
conditions
and
the
future
oriented
task
of
creating
the
conditions
for
positive
peace
and
the
abolition
of
the
system
of
deterrence,
military
threat
and
structural
violence.
This
article
has
been
written
for
the
tenth
anniversary
of
the
Frankfurt
Peace
Research
Institute
in
1981.
Ten
years
of
work
by
an
institute
for
peace
research
are
not
reason
enough
for
celebration,
even
if
much
has
been
achieved.
The
dis-
crepancy
between
the
goals
of
peace
research
and
the
prevalent
discord
in
the
world
is
too
conspicuous
to
provide
a
reason
for
rejoicing.
Compared
with
the
modest
institutional
efforts
that
can
be
made,
peace
research
receives
far
more
public
attention
than
any
other
science.
And
in
comparison
with
peace
researchers,
who
are
some
dozens
of
scientists
in
the
Federal
Republic
and
some
hundreds
all
over
the
world,
hardly
any
other
group
has
stood
in
the
limelight
to
such
an
extent
over
the
last
ten
to
twenty
years.
In
the
past
two
years,
above
all
political
expectations,
but
also
political
attacks
directed
against
peace
research,
have
been
intensified.
Opponents
of
our
work
blame
us
for
a
lack
of
scientific
approach
or
even
for
a
total
absence
of
scientific
methods
(even
if
they
are
completely
ignorant
of
our
publications).
They
content
that
we
have
too
much
dero-
gatory
influence
over
schools,
the
media
and
political
education.
Our
friends
blame
us,
on
the
other
hand,
for
being
too
theoretical
and
scientific
and
urge
us
to
turn
to
burning
questions
of
the
day;
we
should
leave
our
academic
ivory
tower,
write
in
a
compre-
hensible
and
more
popular
way
and
exert
influence
on
practical
politics.
I
suggest
that
we
should
not
be
deceived
by
the
wide
public
attention
given
to
peace
research.
Only
a
small
part
of
it
is
directed
towards
science
and
its
findings,
whereas
far
more
attention
is
directed
towards
the
political
symbol
peace
and
peace
research
in
a
positive
and
a
negative
way.
When
the
process
of
d6tente
between
East
and
West
ceased
two
years
after
Helsinki,
we
warned
against
the
risk
of
a
threatening
second
cold
war.
When,
following
the
Soviet
intervention
in
Afgha-
nistan,
d6tente
fell
into
a
deep
crisis,
con-
servative
attacks
on
peace
research
intensified.
Peace
research
was
discredited
as
an
ideologi-
cal
outcome
of
an
allegedly
illusionary
d6tente
policy.
Simultaneously,
there
were
growing
hopes
of
a
wider
general
public
that
peace
research
precisely
could
show
a
way
out
of
the
impasse
of
d6tente.
In
our
country,
the
public
promotion
of
peace
research
is
a
result
of
political
devel-
opment
and
political
decisions.
When
the
Federal
Republic
at
the
time
of
the
Grand
Coalition
of
CDU/CSU
and
SPD
got
into
line
with
the
American-Soviet
d6tente
process,
and
encouragd
it,
public
promotion
of
peace
research
was
institutionalized
by
the
con-
sensus
of
all
parties
in
the
Bundestag
and
all
big
social
groups
-
business,
the
trade
unions
and
the
churches.
So
far,
there
has
never
been
a
consensus
as
wide
as
this
in
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