The basic question to which this book is addressed is not how to eliminate or prevent conflict but rather how to make it productive, or minimally, how to prevent it from being destructive. I shall not deal with situations of "pure" conflict in which inevitably one side loses what the other gains. My interest is in conflict where there is a mixture of cooperative and competitive interests, where a variety of outcomes is possible; mutual loss, gain for one and loss of the other, and mutual gain. Thus my query can be restated, as an investigation of the conditions under which the participants will evolve a cooperative relationship or a competitive relationship in a situation which permits either. -- from the introduction.

Deutsch, Morton And Robert M. Krauss, Theories In Social Psychology

Commemorating Morton Deutsch's 95th birthday, this book presents ten major texts by this highly respected social psychologist on war and peace. This second volume presents Deutsch in his role as a leading social science activist on issues of war and peace - writing papers, making speeches and participating in demonstrations. After serving in the U.S. Air Force during World War II and being awarded two Distinguished Flying Cross medals, as a psychologist he was determined to work for a more peaceful world. Influenced by Kurt Lewin, who believed that nothing was as practical as a good theory, Deutsch pursued theoretical work on such issues as cooperation-competition, conflict resolution and social justice with regard to issues of war and peace. As President of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the International Society of Political Psychology, he helped to foster social science efforts to make for a more peaceful world.