This book looks into the role and effects of public apologies in international relations. It focuses on two major questions - why and when do states issue apologies for historic crimes and how and under what conditions are these apologies successful in remedying conflictive relationships? In recent years, we have witnessed an unseen popularity of apologies, with numerous politicians, managers and clergymen being eager to apologise and atone for the wrong-doings of their countries or institutions. Public apologies, thus, are a new and highly interesting, while nevertheless still puzzling phenomenon, the precise role and meaning of which in international politics remains to be explored. This book sets out to do exactly this. Focusing in particular on state apologies, it assembles twelve detailed empirical case studies which deal with the two questions raised above. In the first part, the case studies reconstruct the processes in which state representatives react to calls for public atonement, and in the second part the case studies explore the reactions to the apology and evaluate signs for its success or failure. All case studies are based on a theoretical framework which is outlined in the introduction to the book and helps develop tentative assumptions about the emergence and the effects of state apologies, drawing on different strands of literature, such as political science, philosophy, sociology or psychology. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of conflict reconciliation, international relations and transitional justice.

This book looks into the role and effects of public apologies in international relations. It focuses on two major questions - why and when do states issue apologies for historic crimes and how and under what conditions are these apologies successful in remedying conflictive relationships? In recent years, we have witnessed an unseen popularity of apologies, with numerous politicians, managers and clergymen being eager to apologise and atone for the wrong-doings of their countries or institutions. Public apologies, thus, are a new and highly interesting, while nevertheless still puzzling phenomenon, the precise role and meaning of which in international politics remains to be explored. This book sets out to do exactly this. Focusing in particular on state apologies, it assembles twelve detailed empirical case studies which deal with the two questions raised above. In the first part, the case studies reconstruct the processes in which state representatives react to calls for public atonement, and in the second part the case studies explore the reactions to the apology and evaluate signs for its success or failure. All case studies are based on a theoretical framework which is outlined in the introduction to the book and helps develop tentative assumptions about the emergence and the effects of state apologies, drawing on different strands of literature, such as political science, philosophy, sociology or psychology. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of conflict reconciliation, international relations and transitional justice.

This book brings together scholars from the hitherto disparate fields of terrorism and reconciliation studies, to examine whether reconciliation is a possible strategy for dealing with and ending a terrorist conflict. Traditionally, terrorism research has revolved around such questions as: What is terrorism? What causes it? How can it be dealt with? Reconciliation research tries to find ways to overcome deep societal rifts after civil conflict, to deal with injustices and to re-establish social and political peace and stability. The central questions raised here are: (a) what constitutes reconciliation' as a process and an outcome; and (b) how can reconciliation be facilitated in a situation of social conflict. All these questions play a part in the idea of reconciliation with terrorists'. Reconciliation efforts are taken into consideration after state terror but not usually in situations of conflict with sub-state terrorist actors. Similar to state terror, sub-state terrorism is a sign of a deep societal rift which reconciliation measures may help to overcome. In addition, even though terrorist activities often play a role in situations of conflict and transition, terrorists' are generally not taken into consideration as active, or relevant, participants by researchers and practitioners. In some cases, the terrorists' turn into political actors during the reconciliation process and their past is not an issue anymore, as it was the case with the ANC in South Africa. In other cases terrorist groups are considered as spoilers of reconciliation and are therefore excluded from the societal reconciliation process, as was the case with ETA in Spain. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, transitional justice, conflict resolution, peace and conflict studies and IR in general.

Die Politikwissenschaft thematisiert seit geraumer Zeit in den verschiedensten Zusammenhängen die diskursive Konstitution politischer Realität. Die Erkenntnis, dass Politik wesentlich eine diskursive Dimension hat, führt in fast allen Teildisziplinen zu einer ganzen Reihe von intensiv verfolgten Anschlussfragen. Im Kontext dieses Interesses an der diskursiven Konstruktion des Politischen wendet sich der vorliegende Band besonders der narrativen Dimension des Politischen und den Formen ihrer Erforschung zu. Er bietet eine erste Annäherung an das noch junge Forschungsfeld der narrativen Politiken und diskutiert den Mehrwert der Analyse narrativer Strukturen und des politischen Erzählens für die verschiedenen Teildisziplinen der Politikwissenschaft.

Reconciliation after Terrorism brings together scholars from the hitherto disparate fields of terrorism and reconciliation studies, in order to examine whether reconciliation is a possible strategy for dealing with and ending a terrorist conflict. Although terrorist activities often play a role in situations of conflict and transition, terrorists are generally not taken into consideration as active participants by researchers and practitioners. In some cases, the terrorists turn into political actors during the reconciliation process and their past is not an issue anymore, as it was the case with the ANC in South Africa. This book examines the notion of reconciliation with terrorists from a theoretical and empirical perspective. The notion of engagement and reconciliation with terrorist groups is generally seen as problematic, if not impossible. This is somewhat surprising, given that the idea of societal reconciliation has become a common response to state terror- although not usually in situations of conflict with sub-state terrorist actors. Similar to state terror, sub-state terrorism is a sign of a deep societal rift which reconciliation measures may help to overcome. The text investigates the reconciliatory process further, raising the central questions: (a) what constitutes 'reconciliation' as a process and an outcome; and (b) how can reconciliation be facilitated in a situation of social conflict. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, transitional justice, conflict resolution, peace and conflict studies and IR in general. * * *Reconciliation after Terrorism was featured in the Terrorism Bookshelf: Top 150 Books on Terrorism and Counterterrorism, selected and reviewed by Joshua Sinai. -Perspectives on Terrorism , Vol. 6, No 2, 2012* * *