Intractable Conflicts: Socio-Psychological Foundations and Dynamics

Description

This book provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary and holistic analysis of the socio-psychological dynamics of intractable conflicts. Daniel Bar-Tal's original conceptual framework is supported by evidence drawn from different disciplines, including empirical data and illustrative case studies. His analysis rests on the premise that intractable conflicts share certain socio-psychological foundations, despite differences in context and other characteristics. He describes a full cycle of intractable conflicts - their outbreak, escalation and reconciliation through peace building. Bar-Tal's framework provides a broad theoretical view of the of the socio-psychological repertoire that develops in the course of long-term and violent conflicts, outlines the factors affecting its formation, demonstrates how it is maintained, points out its functions and describes its consequences. The book also elaborates on the contents, processes and other factors involved in the peace building process.

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.

'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 '... this is an excellent book that, at once, develops a powerful set of concepts and an overarching argument about intractable conflicts and their potential displacement. Most impressive is the way that its leading concepts produce a political psychology that can address both individual and collective psychic states and their mutual imbrication. This is distilled in its master concept of the sociopsychological repertoire. At the same time, it is an invaluable guide to vast tracts of the most pertinent research literature, especially in social psychology.' John D. Cash, Political Psychology 'Daniel Bar-Tal has with this book, as well as with his overall work, contributed as a social scientist to the promotion of the idea of peace as much as Desmond Tutu has as a bishop or Andrei Sakharov as a nuclear physicist. This sets the task for many of us in our professions as doctors, priests, businesspeople, and teachers, to do as much as we can to improve the world in which we live at least a little bit.' Nebojsa Petrovic, Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 'Intractable Conflicts: Socio-Psychological Foundations and Dynamics is a veritable gold mine. Its organization is intelligent and coherent, and its range and coverage is appropriately encyclopedic. This book deals with the theoretical issues around the concepts of intractable conflicts. It analyzes the socio-psychological foundation and dynamics of intractable conflicts and their peace-building on the basis of a particular conceptual framework that Daniel Bar-Tal developed with his cumulative years of experience in living with the Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.' Oluwaseun Bamidele, International Journal on World Peace