ABSTRACT
With the end of the Cold War, the world has had to come to grips with new or at least hitherto hidden types of confl ict. In these confl icts, the combatants inhabit the same battlefi eld. This means that even when the actual fi ghting fades, the lives of the opposing groups remain interlocked. Subjective elements of confl ict often persist long after its “objective” elements disappear. They can become independent of the initiating, more objective causes of the confl ict and contribute to an escalation and continuation of violence even after the initial causes have become irrelevant (Deutsch, 1973; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Thus, the formal resolution of a confl ict is often merely the fi rst step toward peaceful coexistence. To promote peace and reconciliation, a psychological process is required to change people’s often deeply-entrenched beliefs and feelings about the outgroup, their ingroup, and the relationship between the two (Bar-Tal, 2000). Group loyalty and the maintenance of group boundaries are dominant features of such confl icts, as are communal memories of victimization. Together they create psychological processes that, if not countered, will lead to further cycles of violence.
