Reconciliation as Politics

Is ""political reconciliation"" a new tool for peace-building and justice--in peace processes and other complex social reconstruction efforts-after dictatorship or civil wars? Or is it just another term for established practices like negotiation, conflict resolution, and cooperation?

Reconciliation processes after conflict and war can be very different in form and content. Kjell-Ake Nordquist analyzes the concept of reconciliation from a political perspective and outlines an understanding of its characteristics in a comparison with its closest ""conceptual relatives"": forgiveness and conflict resolution. In addition, Nordquist specifically addresses the structural dimensions of reconciliation, and formulates an understanding of reconciliation that identifies a specific contribution to the settlement of political conflicts. In this way, political reconciliation has the potential to be an approach that, along with other activities, contributes to more complete and genuine peace processes.

""In this timely and important book, Nordquist develops the concept of 'political reconciliation' and thereby adds to one of the most pivotal questions for contemporary peace processes: how reconciliation promotes conflict resolution. Building on both theoretical insights and practical experiences, Nordquist is able to provide a holistic analysis of ethical and political challenges in reconciliation processes. This is a significant study for policy-makers as well as researchers interested in promoting peace and resolving conflict.""

--Isak Svensson, Professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University

Kjell-Ake Nordquist is Professor of International Relations, specializing in peace-building and human rights, in the Human Rights Program at Stockholm School of Theology. He has been involved in mediation and conflict resolution work in East Timor, in the Middle East, and in Latin America. Together with Goran Gunner, Nordquist is the author of An Unlikely Dilemma (2011), and the editor of Gods and Arms (2013).