Book excerpt: This book primarily analyses the current situation in intercultural education and intercultural competences, and addresses the challenges to, and possible ways of dealing with, different perspectives in intercultural education. Advances in the new millennium, such as the revolution in information technologies, have led to a reduction in distances between people, stronger ties between different geographical areas, and greater mobility. This volume examines how these advances seem to have given rise to profound economic, environmental, political, social, and cultural crises, not just within nations, but also in relations between cultures. Such crises are of concern to all aspects of human life, including family, work and mass media, but they particularly affect educational institutions. The papers in this collection explain, therefore, why it is necessary to invest in education.