The Moonshot and Ending Violence Against Children

Wessells and Kostelny take on the challenge of ending violence against children, a global problem that calls for cooperative problem solving on a global scale. They diagnose the problem by unpacking some of the structural and cultural antecedents and consequences of violent episodes. Using a social systems model, their thick, contextual analysis makes it clear that the goal of eliminating violence will require a deeper understanding of the interplay of cultural and structural dynamics than has been appreciated heretofore. Efforts to eliminate violence against children have been beset by a number of methodological and epistemological problems, which Wessells and Kostelny identify. Their critique is instructive but how to move forward on such a broadly defined goal remains unclear. Other efforts to deal with a diverse array of global challenges, such as climate change, pandemics, the threat of nuclear war and even the US moonshot, have typically construed goals more narrowly. The methodology of necessity for the moonshot is particularly instructive as scientists agreed on a narrowly defined endpoint and then grappled with numerous problems and the means of solving them as they emerged over time. Among the virtues of the Wessells and Kostelny article is its reminder that peace psychology, in conjunction with other intellectual traditions, can actually take onboard important big-picture problems that bear on human well-being and survival.