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Our Brains at War: The Neuroscience of Conflict and Peacebuilding suggests that we need a radical change in how we think about war, leadership, and politics. Most of us, political scientists included, fail to appreciate the extent to which instincts and emotions, rather than logic, factor into our societal politics and international wars. Many of our physiological and genetic tendencies, of which we are mostly unaware, can all too easily fuel our antipathy towards other groups, make us choose 'strong' leaders over more mindful leaders, assist recruitment for illegal militias, and facilitate even the most gentle of us to inflict violence on others. Drawing upon the latest research from emerging areas such as behavioral genetics, biopsychology, and social and cognitive neuroscience, this book identifies the sources of compelling instincts and emotions, and how we can acknowledge and better manage them so as to develop international and societal peace more effectively.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Chapter 1. Introductionn: All Too Human: The Allure of Donald Trump -- Who Were Trump's Initial Followers? -- Strangers to Ourselves -- Truth Is What We Believe -- Our Savannah Leader? -- We Prefer People Like Us -- We Like Beer Buddies -- Outside the Norms -- Bread and Circuses -- Who Supported Trump in the Presidential Elections? -- A Politics of Hope? -- References -- Chapter 2. The Politics of Hope: Donald Trump as an Entrepreneur of Identity -- Introduction: Making Sense of Those Who Don't Make Sense to Us -- Inside the Trump Machine -- The Entrepreneur of Identity -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 3. Unexamined Assumptions about Leadership: Why People Follow Trump -- The Role of Voters' Implicit Leadership Theories in Support for Donald Trump -- Predictors of Leadership Emergence -- Implicit Leadership Theories -- Assumptions about Effective Leaders -- Implicit Beliefs among Committed Trump Supporters -- Resonating to the Trumpian Worldview -- Implicit Theories of Trumpian Leadership -- Trump the Businessman and CEO -- Toughness -- Authenticity -- Wealth -- Trump Understands -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 4. Leadership and Followership: Trump-An Adaptive Mismatch? -- The Need for Meaning -- An Epistemic Need -- A Need for Security -- An Innate Evolutionary Code -- Attraction to Leaders: A Psychoevolutionary Perspective -- The Campaign -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 5. Power, Persuasion, and Bad Leadership -- Leadership and Power -- Leadership and Influence Tactics -- Why Good Leaders Turn Bad -- Antidotes to Unfair Leader Use of Power and Influence Tactics -- Social Psychology and the Trump Phenomenon -- References -- Chapter 6. Nationalist Politics: The Role of Predispositions and Emotions -- Donald Trump's Nationalist Politics

Intro -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF FIGURES -- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS -- PREFACE -- 1 A divided island -- 2 Equity work -- 3 Community dialogue and cooperation -- 4 The next generation -- 5 Cultural traditions -- 6 Policing the conflict -- 7 Challenging thearmed struggle -- 8 Political initiatives - Tracks One and Two -- 9 Training for change -- 10 Peace by piece? -- 11 Lessons learned -- Index.