Negotiating Reconciliation in Peacemaking. Quandaries of Relationship Building

This book offers a unique approach to reconciliation as a matter for negotiation, bringing together two bodies of theory in order to offer insights into resolving conflicts and achieving lasting peace. It argues that reconciliation should not be simply accepted as an ‘agreed-upon norm’ within peacemaking processes, but should receive serious attention from belligerents and peace-brokers seeking to end violent conflicts through negotiation. The book explores different meanings the term ‘reconciliation’ might hold for parties in conflict - the end of overt hostilities, a transformation in the quality of relations between warring groups, a vehicle of accountability and punishment of human rights abusers or the means through which they might somehow acquire amnesty, and as a means of atonement and to material reparation. It considers what gives energy to the idea of reconciliation in a conflict situation—why do belligerents become interested in settling their differences and changing their attitudes to one another?  Using a range of case studies and thematic discussion, chapters in this book seek to tackle these tough questions from a multidisciplinary perspective. Contributions to the book reveal some of the complexities of national and international reconciliation projects, but particularly diverse understandings of reconciliation and how to achieve it. All conflicts reflect unique dynamics, aspirations and power realities. It is precisely because parties in conflict differ in expectations of reconciliation outcomes that its processes should be negotiated.  This book is a valuable resource for both scholars and practitioners engaged in resolving conflicts and transforming fragmented relations in conflict and post-conflict situations.

Valerie Rosoux has a Licence in Philosophy and a Ph.D. in International Relations. She is a senior research fellow at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) and a Senior Visiting Fellow of Clingendael, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. She teaches International Negotiation, and Conflict Transformation at the University of Louvain (UCL). In 2010-2011, she was a Jennings Randoph Fellow Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (Washington DC). As a post-doctoral researcher, she worked at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 2002, the Center for International Studies and Research (CERI), Institut d’Études Politiques of Paris (2001) and the University Laval, Canada (2000). Her research interests focus on transitional justice, post-war reconciliation and the uses of memory in international relations. Since 2016, she is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy.

Mark Anstey (D Phil) is an Emeritus Professor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and a Senior Visiting Fellow of Clingendael, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. He was a Professor with Michigan State University in Dubai (2008-11), and has taught at the Universities of the Witwatersrand, Cape Town, and Stellenbosch. An active labor and community mediator since 1984, he served on South Africa’s peace structures during the political transition period, and was Director of Monitoring (Eastern Cape) for the Independent Electoral Commission in the country’s historic 1994 elections. He has particular interest in relationship building interventions in places of work. He is active in post-graduate teaching and is the author of seven books and numerous publications in academic and professional journals. He has given addresses, trained and consulted across a spread of countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, as well as the USA.