One of the major challenges of intercultural training refers to the question, how it can be implemented in intractable violent and persistent conflict. Usually, societies in conflict do not recognize the need for intercultural training because they concentrate on mutual delegitimizing and harming each other. Also, they do not strive to promote their relations as a goal stands in their priority. The current chapter suggests that intercultural training under conflict is possible but involves a long process. During the conflict, and especially during times of its de-escalation, it is possible to begin to provide information about the rival. In further stages, especially during negotiations for its peaceful resolution, it is possible to initiate encounters between rival group members. In order to reach the desired outcomes of intercultural training, groups in conflict should get to know each other, not only in conflict-related contexts but also in everyday humane contexts. It is a long process that requires the mobilization and involvement of all institutions. By training that provides neutral and positive information that humanizes, personifies, and legitimizes the opposite group, rival groups can formulate their perceptions towards their adversary in a way that considers its multidimensional aspects, thereby contributing to changing delegitimization of the rival group.

Understanding acquisition and development of stereotypes and prejudice by young children in the context of intractable conflicts is a special challenge for social, developmental, and political psychologists, because these concepts play a major role in the dynamics of the hostile intergroup relations between the rivals (i.e., the parties involved in intractable conflicts). In this type of conflict, societies, as a result of the severe conditions of life, develop and later maintain sociopsychological repertoires, of which extremely negative stereotypes and strong prejudice are an inseparable part. The very negative stereotypes are denoted in delegitimization, defined as follows:

Prejudice refers to the attitude that people hold toward another group (e.g., Leyens, Yzerbyt, & Schadron, 1994; Stroebe & Insko, 1989). However, in the context of intractable conflict, the negative attitude experienced by rival society members is strong. Therefore, we refer to such prejudice as animosity, which conjures emotions of hatred and anger, to stress its particular nature (see Jung et al., 2002). Though delegitimization and animosity are learned similarly as are all stereotypes and attitudes, they are special reflections of the context of intractable conflicts. They are acquired by children as a direct result of their exposure to violence, and other experiences as well, and are imparted to them implicitly and explicitly by agents of socialization. These agents include the family, as well as those at institutionalized levels, through educational systems, media, or political organizations. This chapter elucidates the unique process of the early acquisition of delegitimization (very negative stereotyping) and animosity (very strong prejudice) by children who grow up in societies that are involved in intractable conflict with all its implications. First, the chapter elaborates on the nature of the intractable conflicts, as the unique context in which children develop and acquire their intergroup repertoire of stereotypes and prejudice.