This book provides in very practical terms a new way of understanding what was happening in Soviet-American relations in the 1980s. Unlike most psychological writings on the subject, this book examines the collective influences that  impelled the superpowers toward conflict and were  simultaneously impelling them toward cooperation. It argues that psychology must play a dramatic role in international relations if humanity is to avoid self-annihilation. It is the act of war itself—and not specific conflicts between groups and nations—that is the greatest threat to human survival, and our realization of this fact marks a critical turning point in the evolution of civilization. In documenting this historical evolutionary shift, Jerome Bernstein discusses the role of the hero archetype in the psychology of U.S.-Soviet relations, a redefinition of war and peace in radically new terms, and the dynamic of paranoia as a nonpathological as well as pathological factor in foreign affairs—all of which remains relevant in the 21st century.