ABSTRACT
This edited volume examines a range of historical and contemporary episodes of reconciliation and anti-reconciliation in the aftermath of war.
Reconciliation is a concept that resists easy definition. At the same time, it is almost invariably invoked as a goal of post-conflict reconstruction, peacebuilding and transitional justice. This book examines the considerable ambiguity and controversy surrounding the term and, crucially, asks what has reconciliation entailed historically? What can we learn from past episodes of reconciliation and anti-reconciliation? Taken together, the chapters in this volume adopt an interdisciplinary approach, focused on the question of how reconciliation has been enacted, performed and understood in particular historical episodes, and how that might contribute to our understanding of the concept and its practice. Rather than seek a universal definition, the book focuses on what makes each case of reconciliation unique, and highlights the specificity of reconciliation in individual contexts.
This book will be of much interest to students of transitional justice, conflict resolution, human rights, history and International Relations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|56 pages
The distant past
chapter 3|17 pages
Jesuit peace-making in the Kingdom of Naples
part II|94 pages
The longue durée
chapter 705|16 pages
1917 in 2017
chapter 7|22 pages
The paradox of reconciliation
chapter 8|18 pages
There once was a country
part III|88 pages
Alternative perspectives
chapter 16410|15 pages
Religion and reconciliation
chapter 11|15 pages
Burying the hatchet
chapter 12|31 pages
‘If you are not careful, reconciliation will be spreading all over the country’
part IV|88 pages
Challenging conventional wisdom