Pleasant Politics

Abstract:

Although hundreds of dialogue programs geared towards conflict resolution are offered every year, there have been few scientific studies of their effectiveness.

Across 2 studies we examined the effect of controlled, dyadic interactions on attitudes towards the ‘other’ in members of groups involved in ideological conflict. Study 1 involved Mexican immigrants and White Americans in Arizona, and Study 2 involved Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East. Cross-group dyads interacted via video and text in a brief, structured, face-to-face exchange: one person was assigned to write about the difficulties of life in their society (‘perspective-giving’), and the second person was assigned to accurately summarize the statement of the first person (‘perspective-taking’).

Positive changes in attitudes towards the outgroup were greater for Mexican immigrants and Palestinians after perspective-giving and for White Americans and Israelis after perspective-taking. For Palestinians, perspective-giving to an Israeli effectively changed attitudes towards Israelis, while a control condition in which they wrote an essay on the same topic without interacting had no effect on attitudes, illustrating the critical role of being heard.

Thus, the effects of dialogue for conflict resolution depend on an interaction between dialogue condition and participants' group membership, which may reflect power asymmetries.

Keiko Fujimori announced on social media that her father, 85-year-old former dictator Alberto Fujimori, will be the presidential candidate in the 2026 elections for the political party Popular Force. “My father and I have talked and decided together that he will be the [presidential] candidate,” said the founder of Popular Force.

Alberto Fujimori was sentenced in 2009 to 25 years in prison for human rights violations and embezzlement. Former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted him a pardon in 2017 due to the former president’s alleged poor health. However, in 2018 the Judiciary annulled the humanitarian pardon and Fujimori returned to prison. Despite this, in December 2018, Peru’s Constitutional Court allowed him to be released from prison through a reinstatement of the previous humanitarian pardon.

Several experts claim that the former dictator’s participation would be not be permitted under Peruvian law.

However, other experts fear that the law could be interpreted in such a way that Fujimori could be a candidate.

The Israeli military will next week begin the process of drafting candidates from Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, the military said on Tuesday.

Israelis are bound by law to serve in the military from the age of 18 for 24-32 months. Members of Israel's 21% Arab minority and ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students have largely been exempt for decades.

Netanyahu's coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties that regard the exemptions as key to keep their constituents in religious seminaries and away from a melting-pot military that might test their conservative values.

...ultra-Orthodox Jews, who make up 13% of Israel's 10 million population...

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On Tuesday July 9, Argentine President Javier Milei attended a military parade in Buenos Aires, Argentina marking the 208th anniversary of Argentina’s independence from the Spanish monarchy in 1816. He had also attended the anniversary in Tucuman of the declaration of independence which was issued on the same day in 1816 in that northwestern Argentine city.

Both events were staged amid the Milei administration’s escalating offensive against the working class. This has taken a more and more concrete form as the regime maps out Milei’s version of a new “National Reorganization Process,” the official name adopted by the military dictatorship which ruled Argentina following a CIA-backed coup in 1976 for its Nazi-inspired agenda.

In January, Milei presided over a restructuring of the armed forces command, retiring 22 generals and creating a “unified logistic command” in which the military would play a direct role internally, as part of the country’s repressive apparatus, not just combatting drug trafficking and alleged terrorist attacks, but patrolling borders and repressing workers and students.

These changes, together with the upgrading of military equipment are considered essential as part of the government’s declared aim of becoming a “global partner” of the US-led NATO alliance.

The document, known as the May Pact, was signed by 18 governors (out of 23), the mayor of the city of Buenos Aires, and by Milei himself. None of the signers, except for Milei, belong to Milei’s political party. No matter, Peronists, Radicals and members of other right-wing bourgeois parties joined in endorsing the Pact.

Its ten points include: the sanctity of private property; slashing public spending; tax and tariff reforms “to simplify the lives of all Argentines” and promote trade; reduction in government subsidies to the provinces; “modern” labor and pension reforms; and unrestricted international trade to make Argentina a “player in the world market” once again. At the request of some of the governors, an additional point was added that ensures and “a useful and modern” educational system for all primary and secondary schools.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich dismisses the army’s internal investigation into its handling of the fighting at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, arguing that such probes “are a grave mistake by the chief of staff.”

“The Israel Defense Forces and those at its head should be concerned with only one thing and that is to win the war,” the far-right minister tells reporters ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset. (...)