Abstract
Professor Daniel Bar-Tal spent a good part of his very successful scientific career studying societal conflicts. The main result of his study is a highly elaborated and very original theory of intractable societal conflicts. This theory, unlike many other theories, explains these conflicts as an outcome of the evolvement of a specific system of interrelated beliefs, attitudes, and emotional orientations, which support each other and in addition are supported by sociocultural processes. The system is a product of societal adaptation to a conflict situation. It is a peculiar form of adaptation that maintains and perpetuates the given conflict. In this chapter, I will discuss the main elements of Bar-Tal’s theory of intractable conflicts: the nature of such conflicts, their development, and implications of the theory for conflict resolution.
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Notes
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It cannot be denied that the threats to Israel were real and collective fear was a justified reaction. But a response to this situation in the form of ethos of conflict might interfere with the search for the most effective ways of dealing with the situation.
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Reykowski, J. (2015). Intractable Conflicts—How can they be Solved? The Theory of Daniel Bar-Tal. In: Halperin, E., Sharvit, K. (eds) The Social Psychology of Intractable Conflicts. Peace Psychology Book Series, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17861-5_1
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