Articles
From Winning Hearts and Minds to Shaping Behaviors: Nation-Building as a New Psychology of Antiterrorism — August 28, 1998
IBPP Editor
This article describes a qualitative change in the psychology of antiterrorism through nationbuilding activities.
Political Denial as a Counterintelligence Vehicle to Counter Counterterrorist Operations: The Sudan — August 28, 1998
IBPP Editor
This article describes the political denial that is implemented by terrorists and supporters of terrorists after an adversary counterterrorist operation and that is intended to impede future operations. Sudanese-sponsored and supported terrorism and United States Government counterterrorist operations are used as an example. The analysis is predicated on the assumption that there is incontrovertible intelligence data supporting the belief that Shifa Pharamceutical Industries in Sudan was engaged in the development and/or transshipment of the chemical warfare agent VX--an assumption based on the alleged detection of a VX precursor that allegedly has no legitimate business or industrial use. (IBPP Note: As of this writing, there are at least three alternative hypotheses: (1) The precursor was accurately detected but can have other innocuous uses. (2) The precursor was inaccurately detected for an agricultural insecticide with similar chemical structure. (3) The precursor was accurately detected but was a byproduct of the breakdown of other pesticides.)
Postmodernism and Narrative Truth: Philosophical Implications of Interrogation Research — August 28, 1998
IBPP Editor
This article continues a series describing research presentations from the 1998 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. In the article, a presentation on interrogation research by John C. Yuille of the University of British Columbia, Canada, is explicated for its relevance to postmodernist notions of truth.
Trends
Trends. Functional versus Ideological Environmentalism: Implications for Physical and Psychological Security — August 28, 1998
IBPP Editor
The author discusses how ideological environmentalists embrace the notion that nature is pristine and benign. All must be, continue to be, and modified to be as it would be without human intervention. Supporting belief systems are problematic.
Trends. Kosovo and the United Nations: A Paean for Application of Psychological Research on Good Samaritanism — August 28, 1998
IBPP Editor
This article discusses the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that is beginning to employ a team of investigators, lawyers, and analysts who may--ultimately--identify, prosecute, and deter war crimes in Kosovo, observers might wonder what's taking so long and why the United Nations hasn't focused more emphatically on the Serbian military, paramilitary, and police attacks on ethnic Albanian civilians in recent weeks. Answers might include difficulties in identifying the behavioral referents of war crime, fears that more determined intervention might deleteriously affect humanitarian aid to the many internal refugees, fears that humanitarian aid personnel might be further intimidated and killed, concerns that equal time be spent on alleged ethnic Albanian war crimes against Serbian civilians, the need to appear even-handed, and even what might be termed the fatigue of war and atrocity perception.
