This document discusses how the process of interacting with others while being accountable to authority figures has been a recurring problem throughout history. It notes that this process of trying to assert power over weaker groups can be seen playing out across the world and throughout different time periods. The document warns that the current era is unique in that this process has become more polarized than ever before and media now plays a large role in shaping perceptions of identity and "the other."

3.  This constant process of trying to interact with others while being answerable
to the powers that be seems to be a problem that can be seen in the context of
our collective historical experience.
 No matter what time or place you choose you can see elements of this process
being played out all over the world and at all times.
 What is new is that the process has never been so polarized and access to
media has never been so involved in shaping the perception of who we are.”
OTHERS over
TIME become less and less like
WE are if their identity is not
like our identity…

4. WE: OTHERS:
 Self referential views
often are the result of
limited knowledge of
others.
 “They” often see our
views as based on a
lack of interest in
them.

5. The Melian dialogue
The Melian dialogue has come down to us as a stark example of the powerful exerting authority over the weak.
As is often the case even today the dialogue has shaded meaning that hides the fact that distributive power is
the foundation of many IR theories:
Melians: “But do you consider that there is no security in the policy which we indicate? For here again if you
debar us from talking about justice and invite us to obey your interest, we also must explain ours, and try to
persuade you, if the two happen to coincide. How can you avoid making enemies of all existing neutrals who
shall look at case from it that one day or another you will attack them? And what is this but to make greater the
enemies that you have already, and to force others to become so who would otherwise have never thought of
it?” [1]
[1] Thucydides, (c. 460-395) History of the Peloponnesian War
I am right!

6. CASE STUDY:
During the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference Ho Chi Minh attempted to talk with U.S.
president Woodrow Wilson. Ho wanted to present president Wilson with a proposal for
Vietnam's independence. Because of pressure from France he was turned away.
Leaving Paris in 1923, Ho then traveled to Moscow to begin training at the headquarters
of the Communist International (Comintern) and eventually assumed an active role in its
fifth congress.
He criticizing the French Communist Party for not opposing colonialism more vigorously.
He also urged the Comintern to start to actively promote revolution in Asia.
President Woodrow Wilson died in 1924.
Forty years later the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred and set the US on the road to
Vietnam.

7. “The Monolithic Them”:
WE: OTHERS:
You are all
bad!
You
are all
bad!

8. History has shown the danger of the state
establishing the Monolithic Them…
Just
followin
g
orders!

9.  Inventive/cooperative negotiation driven by the concept
of creating meaningful value.
 It states that mutual problem solving and active
participation in apportionment (as opposed to winner-
loser posturing) empowers the process and that this is
key to all parties involved feeling that considerable gains
have been made.

10. “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into
you.” Nietzsche
Negotiation needs
“cognitive resonance” in
order to be effective. It is
only when we have
empathy toward our
fellow man and woman
that we are able to look
past our own self/group
interests and start a
process that can address
issues of transformative
change.
YUM YUM!

11. Summery…
 As is often the case when there is stress placed on access to resources needed by everyone some tend to use the
few as scapegoats.
 This is a pattern that we have seen played out time and time again historically. This pattern still continues to this
day and will continue for as long as the majority of people in the world see their relationship to others as first and
foremost a political definition of who they are and who others are.
 By the very fact that we still chose to look at each other from this perspective we are setting in place a very limited
way of working together to solve complex problems when we face them.
 How a political system conducts transactions between foreign and domestic policy will in turn become the self
referential image that is projected to other countries.
 Lack of understanding of the current international politico-economic climate can damage meaningful dialogue; this
then begins to have a negative impact on diplomacy and business.
 When we group all people into one category we start to create the phenomena of “The Monolithic Them.”
 Others over Time become less and less like us if their identity has become amalgamated into The Monolithic Them.
 Once you project The Monolithic Them onto a group of people they will do the same to you and your group.
Bye…