Psychosocial mediators of war and peace

War is the continuation of politics by other means. Politicaldecisions on the initiation or termination of wars are influencedby economic, social and ideological factors overshadowedheavily by history. However, at the very end the human beingsand their decisions play a principal role. There are humans whodecide to kill and there are more who become victims as killersor the killed. When it comes to human beings, their psychosocialhealth is of much significance as a mediator factor. People havebeen shown in several studies to be vulnerable to commit violenceagainst others by planned manipulation.To protect peace, we need to know those factors that make peoplepsychosocially healthier in this regard.However, we should mind to avoid mere psychologism aswell. Human beings are social beings not entering wars easily.They avoid death and massacres in general. However, numerousstudies and observations show they have a strong potential to bemanipulated and give up to complete subsidence to authority tothe extent of committing violence and murder. Initiation of killingis difficult but its continuation becomes easy and the interruptionsometimes becomes awkward. There is also a potential for suchbehaviours to become epidemic.Providing people with opportunities for more participation abouttheir own fate, prevention of discrimination and double standards,improving economic situation and increasing occupation ratesand social justice globally might work as solutions. Educatingyoungsters on life and social skills training such as building up their own identity, augmenting empathy, creative and criticalthinking, better communication and problem solving will not onlyhelp to protect peace and finding better alternatives for conflictresolution, but will prepare them for prevention of falling prey toviolence by others.Vast public support of populist politicians has become aworrisome phenomenon at the global level. The need for auniversal multifaceted effort on the underlying factors of thissocial problem is felt more than ever.These kinds of decision makers who lack control over theiremotions and are skillful in manipulating masses of peopleincrease the probability of wars. Peace lovers of the world shouldfind ways to improve the quality of human capital of their peopleand their skills in differentiating populism from real socialreformers and enable them compete with their use of media. Allthe above-mentioned interventions in addition to psychosocialinterventions and improving positive mental health need to bescaled up for developing and safeguarding sustainable peace inthe world.