By Dr. Kathie Malley-Morrison

Terrorist incidents, 2008. Image by Ichwan Palongengi, used under CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Learning about the causes of terrorism is challenging, in part because of the co-option of the term to serve political agendas. Learning about female terrorism, particularly the U.S. homegrown variety, is an even greater challenge--but Colleen LaRose provides us with an instructive case.

Born in Michigan in 1963, LaRose grew up in Texas, dropped out of school after junior high, was married briefly at age 16 to a man twice her age, married again at age 24 and divorced after 10 years, moved to Philadelphia in 2004 to live with a boyfriend and help care for his aging father, became depressed and attempted... Read more... 

By guest author Jenna Hassan   

Professor Malley-Morrison's seminar on the Psychology of War and Peace showed me how altering one's perspective can instantly change one's entire outlook on a situation. 

Alan O'Hare showed us how just moving from inside the classroom to outside the building can change an entire experience. Once we left the classroom, all formality ceased and every student was eager to share views. When we returned to the classroom... Read more... 

By Dr. Kathie Malley-Morrison  

War Child

We've heard considerable rhetoric recently about the vileness of subjecting children to poison gas--and vile it is. So are other means by which children are maimed and murdered, and the government of the United States is complicit in vile acts against the world's children.

For example, being burned to death--as happened to thousands of children in the World War II firebombing of cities in Japan and Germany--is ghastly, whether it kills or scars for life.

Being born with birth defects related to Agent Orange, or being killed or maimed by unexploded ordinance...  Read more...  

Realistically, we should remember that some people celebrated the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001, with glee.

• Their wildest dream was coming true.
• All those millions of American TVs tuned in to death, destruction, and devastation.
• All that fear and anger!
• It was better even than the Gulf of Tonkin incident!

I am not talking about Arabs or Muslims, the vast majority of whom shared... Read more... 

Featured comment on Engaging Peace

Thank you for your efforts to raise awareness of the terrible tragedies that our country is responsible for. I think that often our leaders mean well, and yet the enormous amount of money that is earned by some in power when making war does make me wonder how much is good intentions and how much is... Read more...  

If you get into an argument...

A book review by Brooke

A map and a mule: A peace story of Queen Isabel of Portugal by Eric Timar takes place a long time ago when Portugal and Spain got into a huge argument because they didn't know to whom the town Serpa belonged.  

While they were getting their suits and armor on, Queen Isabel saved the day by making a map. After that was cleared up, King Dennis (Isabel's husband) got into an argument with his son, the Crown Prince.  

Now, I'm not going to say anymore, but what do you think happened? What could Queen Isabel have done? Remember, it's not always easy making peace. If you get into an argument with someone, it's best to make an agreement so you can get along.