Louis Kriesberg

Author Bio

Louis Kriesberg is professor emeritus of sociology and Maxwell Professor Emeritus of Social Conflict Studies at Syracuse University. He is the founding director of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts and past president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. He is the author of Realizing Peace: A constructive Conflict Approach and other books.

Content by this author

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It’s Time to Drop Preconditions and Re-Open Talks with North Korea

October 21, 2016

Negotiating between the United States and North Korea can't wait.

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Obama: The Conflict Resolution President?

April 18, 2016

In minimizing U.S. resort to violence, President Obama has brought conflict resolution to the Oval Office.

In an article at Breaking Defense, Mark Cancian, a former top defense budget analyst at the Office of Management and Budget under President Obama, presents a “thought experiment.”
What if Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders becomes president? What would a Sanders defense program look like?
Cancian figures that Sanders would attempt to bring U.S. defense spending down from 3.1 percent of the GDP (which, remember, doesn’t even include wars) to the 1.3 percent of GDP averaged by other NATO states. In order to accomplish that
Sanders first target would be nuclear forces. He has repeatedly argued that they are too expensive and pledged to cut $100 billion in nuclear spending over 10 years. Sanders would likely embrace a doctrine called “minimum deterrence”; that is, maintaining only enough nuclear capability to threaten devastating retaliation. Although force definitions for minimum deterrence vary, 300 to 400 warheads is a rough estimate. That compares with the current New START cap of 1550. Getting down to that level would require retiring the entire ICBM force, retiring the nuclear bomber force, and reducing the sea-based leg to about six submarines from the current 14. The new Long Range Strike Bomber program (LRSB) would be terminated because of its high cost, even though its primary mission is conventional. There would be commensurate reductions in the National Nuclear Security Administration, which develops and produces nuclear weapons. One of the weapons labs, likely Lawrence Livermore in California, would have to be shuttered.

Kindly bear with me a moment while I recover from “be still my beating heart” mode. The memory is still too fresh of not only President Obama’s abandonment of his arms control (never mind disarmament) goals, but how Jimmy Carter entered his presidency with visions of a nuclear-free world dancing in his head and exited it with an expanded nuclear arsenal. (Photo: The Official White House Photostream / Flickr)

Constructive Conflict Applications in Obama’s Foreign Policies

November 11, 2015

Giving President Obama his due on foreign policy for using the constructive conflict approach.