Reconciliation and a Just Peace

Abstract

This chapter re-examines reconciliation and the concept of just peace. Reconciliation is typically accepted as an aspirational goal, namely as a means to re-establish trust in norms, institutions, and civic community. Drawing on Dworkin’s theory of integrity, this chapter argues that reconciliation should be primarily understood as civic discourse in a post bellum context, namely as an instrument to empower affected victim-survivors and to identify legitimate areas of disagreement. Ultimately, this chapter argues the role of the international community in reconciliation, setting forth a holistic and critically engaged concept of it and the need of interdisciplinarity to assess such meaning.