Is There a Universal Pattern for Reconciliations? Successes and Failures of European and Asian Reconciliation as a Tool for the Balkans?

Abstract

: The postwar period brought not only the division of the world into two hostile camps but also the need to reconcile and work through the past wrongdoings. The world was amazed by Willy Brandt’s knee-fall in Warsaw in 1970, and some of the countries took that as an example of the perfect reconciliation. Nonetheless, Polish-German apologies were not the ones that washed away all blame. The war memories still raise many emotions among the two nations. However, Japan and Korea, two allied democracies that still struggle with the war memories, frequently point to the European neighbors as a perfect example of reconciliation. The aim of this paper is to verify the strengths and weaknesses of European and Asian reconciliation and to find among them the working patterns for the Balkans, as well as the failures that should not be repeated.