1. In 2012, we (Morton Deutsch, Eric Marcus, and Sarah Brazaitis) published a paper in P.T. Coleman and M. Deutsch (Eds.) Psychological Components of a Sustainable Peace entitled “A Framework for Thinking About Developing a Global Community.” A somewhat revised and more recent version of this paper, “Developing a Global Community: A Social Psychological Perspective” is available at http://wp.me/a4Arm7-218.
2. In 2012, under the leadership of Morton Deutsch and James Westaby, we invited members of the Conflict Resolution Network at Columbia University to meet to discuss the intellectual issues related to developing a global community. Sixty people were interested but only 30 people were able to meet at the time of the meeting. Over a period of several months, we met: six groups were formed who discussed various issues related to developing a global community. At the conclusion of our meetings, a small group emerged who wished to take specific actions.
3. This group consists of Morton Deutsch, Eric Marcus, and Janet Gerson. This group has stimulated the development of a Public Forum on Educating for a Global Human Community which took place at Teachers College in November, 2013. President Susan Fuhrman introduced the Forum, Morton Deutsch served as its coordinator and the following distinguished faculty members made presentations and led break-out groups: Warner Burke, Joshua Fisher, William Gaudelli, David Hansen, and Victoria Marsick. A video of the presentations at the forum is available at http://youtu.be/dnGQEXv1Akc.
4. More recently, the members of the Global Community Forum have been engaged in a pilot study, Imagine a Global Human Community, which presents subjects with a summary of basic values of such a community (based on the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s statement of the “Four Freedoms” in 1941.) The questionnaire asks whether they want to become a member of such a community and, if so, are they willing to commit themselves to actions to foster the development of such a community. The questionnaire then asks a variety of questions which seek to understand their answers. The questionnaire is available at www.surveymonkey.com/s/2BT8WN3.
We have now conducted a survey of about 600 adults (implemented by Survey Monkey) and are in the process of analyzing the data with the excellent help of Yangyang Liu, our summer research assistant.
5. After the completion of the pilot study, we shall seek funding to do a study that involves distributing “Imagine a Global Human Community” worldwide creating a website where people can indicate the actions they have taken, obtain suggestions for possible actions to take, form groups to take collective action, and do systematic research on what occurs.
6. Our group is also invested in stimulating the development of a multidisciplinary conference to discuss the theoretical and research issues related to fostering the development of an effective, cooperative global human community.
We would welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and participation in our activities.