Intractable Conflicts

Daniel Bar-Tal is the Branco Weiss Professor of Research in Child Development and Education at Tel-Aviv University. His primary research interests are political and social psychology, particularly the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peace building. Professor Bar-Tal is the recipient of a number of major awards, including the Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Prize of SPSSI, the Golestan Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Peace Scholar Award of the Peace and Justice Studies Association and the 2011 Lasswell Award and 2012 Nevitt Sanford Award of the International Society of Political Psychology. He has published widely in the areas of conflict and peace studies. His 2005 book Stereotypes and Prejudice in Conflict, co-authored with Yona Teichman, received the Alexander George Award from the International Society of Political Psychology.

• Introduction; Part I: 1. Nature of intractable conflicts; 2. Eruption of intractable conflicts; 3. Escalation of intractable conflicts; Part II: 4. Collective memory of intractable conflicts; 5. Ethos of conflict; 6. Collective emotional orientations in intractable conflicts; Part III: 7. Institutionalization of the culture of conflict; 8. Socio-psychological barriers to peaceful conflict resolution; Part IV: 9. Breaking the cycles of intractable conflict; 10. Peace building: concepts and their nature; 11. Peace building: processes and methods; Epilogue; References.

'The book explains social-psychological thinking on a very complicated topic. By compiling and integrating such a large body of research, not to mention the singularly large body of work he and his team have themselves done, Daniel Bar-Tal has done a tremendous service to research on intractable conflict. This is an accessible, but rich volume. It is a must read for anyone interested in intergroup conflict, or even singular societies engaged in such conflict.' Lucas Mazur, Culture and Psychology