The Group on International Perspectives on Governmental Aggression and Peace (GIPGAP) is an international multi-disciplinary team of academics and researchers. The group has been undertaking extensive research into social attitudes to peace and war, using the Personal and Institutional Rights to Aggression and Peace Scale, or PAIRTAPS. There is no shortage of critical literature on peace and war. However this is the first-ever global study of the attitudes of ordinary citizens to peace and war. GIPGAP is co-ordinated by Kathleen Malley-Morrison of Boston University, and has its origins in an earlier group that investigated domestic violence within a project entitled International Perspectives on Family Violence and Abuse. The GIPGAP project involves surveying and analysis of the views of citizens from more than 30 countries —covering North America, South America, Central America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, South Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.

GIGAP membership

The GIPGAP website indicates the membership as follows:

Research instrument

The basic research instrument, the Personal and Institutional Rights to Aggression and Peace Scale, is an online survey, utilizing aspects of both qualitative research and quantitative research. Respondents are encouraged to indicate the degree to which they agree or disagree with certain propositions and the instrument also encourages respondents to make specific comment upon issues. The survey is available to respondents in a range of language versions, including English, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese.

Research findings

Preliminary findings for individual countries can be found in the publications list and especially the 4-volume publication in 2009 by Praeger International. In general, there was disapproval for the notion that nations should have a right to invade other nations, disapproval for the use of torture, disapproval for the killing of civilians, approval for the right to protest war, and tentative approval for the notion of a right to peace. Women were very much in support of the notion of the right of children to grow up in a world of peace. Further research, analysis and scholarly publication is planned for the future.

GIPGAP research publications

Books

Journal articles