Intercultural dialogue (ICD) "occurs when members of different cultural groups, who hold conflicting opinions and assumptions, speak to one another in acknowledgment of those differences". It builds upon the concept of dialogue, which refers to at least two people holding a conversation. And it builds upon the term intercultural, which is typically used to refer to people communicating across differences in nationality, race and ethnicity, or religion. Dialogue has several meanings: it sometimes refers to dialogue in a script, which simply means people talking, but more often it refers to "a quality of communication characterized by the participants' willingness and ability simultaneously to be radically open to the other(s) and to articulate their own views. ... Dialogue's primary goal is understanding rather than agreement." Description The term intercultural dialogue similarly is used with quite different meanings. It may be used broadly, to mean any interaction between people that have different cultural backgrounds, which is the same as what is more often called intercultural communication. More narrowly, it may be used only to refer to a subset of intercultural interactions, those with "a deliberate verbal exchange of views designed to achieve understanding of cultural others, with the more advanced steps of achieving agreement and cooperation understood to be potential later goals". Peter Praxmarer supplied a concise definition: "intercultural dialogue is the art and science of understanding the Other". The Council of Europe proposed a definition in 2008, for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, emphasizing the deliberate nature of intercultural dialogue: Interfaith dialogue, also called interreligious dialogue, is a form of intercultural dialogue that focuses on conversations between members of different religions. Interfaith dialogues assume that the participants wish to understand other religious viewpoints. It is narrower than intercultural dialogue, because a religion is one possible form of cultural identity. Intergroup dialogue refers to any time members of groups having different identities talk. It is broader than intercultural dialogue, because cultural identity is one type of possible identity. Uses Politicians and diplomats, especially in Europe, have often used the term intercultural dialogue, assuming that it has the following characteristics: increases respect for cultural diversity, human rights, and freedom; develops sense of community in multicultural populations; promotes tolerance, pluralism, openness, mutual respect; improves ways of living together; strengthens social cohesion; strengthens democratic governance; increases peace and harmony in a multicultural world; and prevents and/or resolves intergroup conflicts. These assumptions have not been