Talk:Anatol Rapoport

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1980 Nobel prize nominee[edit]

  • He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1980s, for his contribution to world peace through nuclear conflict restraint by his game theoretic models of psychological conflict resolution.

Being nominated for the Peace Prize is an honor, but it is not official and not necessarily prestigious. Any national legislator or about a third of the university professors in the world can make a nomination, and there have been as many as 140 some years. Nominators are requested to keep their nominations secret, so it's only those wishing publicity who make announcements. Altogether, I see no reason to keep it. No offense to the subject, this is a general Nobel Peace Prize "nominees" issue. -Willmcw 03:59, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)

He invented the "tit for tat" strategy in cooperative games, winning a content with a 5-line FORTRAN program. see http://www.doyletics.com/art/teocart.htm and Robert Axelrod. (edward vielmetti)


here's the Ann Arbor News obit: ideas here to edit into the article.


Noted peace researcher Rapoport dies at 95 Ex-U-M professor helped organize teach-in against Vietnam War Wednesday, January 24, 2007 BY DAVE GERSHMAN News Staff Reporter

As a professor at the University of Michigan in the 1960s, Anatol Rapoport was an early critic of the Vietnam War, and one of the faculty members involved with the nation's first teach-in, held in Ann Arbor.

Rapoport, who moved his family to Toronto in 1970, died Saturday at the age of 95. But his passion is still felt in Ann Arbor.

Long after the conflict in Southeast Asia had ended, he was still motivated by the same spark. "He kept up his opposition to war throughout his life, said his son, Anthony. Advertisement



Rapoport was a professor of mathematical biology in the department of psychiatry at U-M. After leaving Ann Arbor, Rapoport taught at the University of Toronto, where he became the school's first professor of peace and conflict studies. In academia, he was highly-regarded for his research in the mathematical study of human decisions, and considered a leading peace researcher.

While at U-M in the mid-1950s, Rapoport was a founding member of the U-M Mental Health Research Institute.

Rapoport volunteered for military service after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served as a supply officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces in Alaska and India during World War II. But during the years that followed, his views on war evolved as technology and the development of nuclear weapons made war more deadly and impersonal, said Anthony Rapoport.

The senior Rapoport was fond of saying "you don't have to hate anybody to kill everybody, his son recalled.

While at U-M in 1965, Rapoport was one of the faculty members who organized and participated in the first campus teach-in as an intellectual protest against the war. Rather than attend regular classes, students participated in anti-war seminars and rallies during the teach-in. The idea resonated on other campuses and similar events were spawned across the country.

Rapoport was a frequent speaker at rallies against the war. In April 1967, for instance, he was quoted in an Ann Arbor News article about a rally of 300 people outside city hall. "By undertaking the war against Vietnam, the United States has undertaken a war against humanity, Rapoport told the crowd that day. "This war we shall not win.

One of his colleagues at U-M, J. David Singer, a professor emeritus of political science, called Rapoport an important catalyst for peace activists on campus and a brilliant speaker. "He was an extremely responsible, honest guy, said Singer. "He did not fiddle with the truth.

The two professors were active in what was called the Center for Research on Conflict Resolution, founded to involve scientific evidence with national policy.

"We were not just a bunch of peaceniks, said Singer. "We were a bunch of peaceniks who were very critical of U.S. policy, and the criticism would range from moderate on my part, to extreme on his part.

Born in Russia, Rapoport moved with his parents to Chicago in 1922. He studied in Vienna to become a concert pianist in the 1930s before returning to his adopted hometown to follow a different pursuit and study mathematics at the University of Chicago.

Rapoport is survived by his wife, Gwen, and his three children, Anya, Alexander, and Anthony, all living in the Toronto area.

Dave Gershman can be reached at 734-994-6818 or dgershman@annarbornews.com.

But don't forget (as the Ann Arbor piece) did that Anatol had a full life in Toronto after he left Ann Arbor. That's been put into the current story, and needs to be kept in. Bellagio99 20:33, 30 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject class rating[edit]

This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 10:41, 27 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wrong Institute, Wrong Dates[edit]

The reference to Rapoport's supposed Directorship of an "Institute for Advanced Studies" in Vienna is completely fouled up -- as is the parallel entry for that imaginary Institute.

Rapoport was Co-Director, with Roger Levien, before and since of the RAND Corporation, sometime before 1972, of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, that's its real name, (address: Schloss Laxenberg, Vienna), which was co-founded at the suggestion and initiative of Alexei Gvishiani (Khruschev's son-inlaw) and Oskar Morgenstern. The main function of the Institute was as a back-channel between the Kennedy and then the Johnson White Houses and the Kremlin, at the level of technology of Telex machines. The idea that the Institute was funded by the Ford Foundation is amusing -- and may even be true. When Levien returned to Washington, in the late 1960's, one of his first assignments for RAND was to be loaned to the White House, where he set up the Red Telephone, an actual red telephone, in the Oval Office on LBJ's end, somewhere answered by a Kremlin operator at the Russian end.

Any biography of Rapoport should probably mention:

1.) His attempt, during the 1940s, while still at RAND, to invent a mathematical psychology;

2.) His Directorhsip, while at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, of a peace research instute there; and

3.) His moving to Canada in protest against the Vietnam War.

David Lloyd-Jones (talk) 13:40, 6 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Part of the confusion may be due to his early involvement and brief presidency of another organization, which now carries the name ISSS, 'Int'l Society for Systems Study,' or similar, which had one of its first organizational meetings at Stanford U's 'Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences.' He had many interdisciplinary interests, and notable as any of them may be, I'm not sure what purpose an exhaustive laundry list serves, but he IS mentioned at least twice on that page, and seems to have been involved in their publications. Rapoport was president in 1965. rags (talk) 00:37, 27 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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