Peacebuilding and Reconciliation Stage: Additional Resources

These references supplement the Knowledge Base Essay, Peacebuilding and Reconciliation Stage.

Additional Explanations of the Underlying Concepts:

Online (Web) Sources

Hodgson, Jennifer, William Boyce and Michael Koros. "Community Based Rehabilitation: A Strategy for Peacebuilding." , 1900
Available at: http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/peace-health/Resources/cbrpb.pdf  [Backup Link]

This paper describes the practice and impact of peacebuilding through community based rehabilitation (CBR) strategies in the context of armed conflict. Initially, the authors examine the role of civil society, in contrast to state-level interventions, in reducing the risks of conflict. Next, the ethical basis for peacebuilding through practical community initiatives is explored. Finally, a number of benefits and challenges to using CBR strategies for peacebuilding purposes are identified.

Lambourne, Wendy. "Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Meeting Human Needs for Justice and Reconciliation." Peace, Conflict and Development, No. 4 , 2004
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]

This paper argues that both justice and reconciliation are fundamentally significant goals that need to be addressed in the design of successful post-conflict peacebuilding processes and mechanisms.

Glaser, Tanya. "Process: The Dynamics and Progression of Conflict -- Summary." University of Colorado Conflict Research Consortium, 1900.
Available at: Link

This page is a summary of a chapter in Building Peace, by John Paul Lederach. In this section entitled Process: The Dynamics and Progression of Conflict, Lederach adopts mediator Adam Curle's matrix for describing the progress of conflicts in terms of the balance of power between the parties, and the degree to which the parties are aware of their conflicting needs and interests.

Harbottle, Eirwen and Michael Harbottle. "The Two Faces of Peace Building." , June 1997
Available at: http://www.gmu.edu/academic/pcs/harbottle.htm  [Backup Link]

This article discusses the United Nations' role in peace building, including a specification of "peace-" terms. The second half of the article focuses on the United Nations designation of peacebuilding as a specific, distinct activity.

Hamber, Brandon. "Truth: The Road to Reconciliation?." ,
Available at: http://www.csvr.org.za/articles/artrcant.htm  [Backup Link]

Argues that 'it is a mistake to assume that story telling equates with healing and that truth alone will lead to reconciliation.

Offline (Print) Sources

Shriver, Donald W. An ethic for enemies: forgiveness in politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Paris, Roland. At war's end: building peace after civil conflict. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Exploring the challenge of rehabilitating countries after civil wars, this study finds that attempting to transform war-shattered states into liberal democracies with market economies can backfire badly. Roland Paris contends that the rapid introduction of democracy and capitalism in the absence of effective institutions can increase rather than decrease the danger of renewed fighting. A more effective approach to post-conflict peacebuilding would be to introduce political and economic reform in a gradual and controlled manner.-Amazon Primary Link

Lederach, John Paul. Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. Herndon, VA: USIP Press, December 1997.
Marrying wisdom, insight, and passion, Lederach explains why we need to move beyond "traditional" diplomacy, which often emphasizes top-level leaders and short-term objectives, toward a holistic approach that stresses the multiplicity of peacemakers, long-term perspectives, and the need to create an infrastructure that empowers resources within a society and maximizes contributions from outside. Primary Link [Backup Link]

REMHI (Recovery of Historical Memory Project. Guatemala: Never Again!. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1999.
This book is a summarization of a human rights report presented in Guatemala in 1998 sponsored by the Archdiocese. Through eye-witness testimony, it outlines the military atrocities committed during Guatemala's Civil War and the effect the war has had on Guatemala's indigenous population. This edition has been edited from the original lengthy report but retains important testimony in smaller quotes where relevant and offers the reader stark evidence of the massive violence as well as the psychological warfare that was perpetrated on the citizens of Guatemala.

Pankhurst, Donna. "Issues of justice and reconciliation in complex political emergencies: conceptualising reconciliation, justice and peace." Third World Quarterly 20:1, 1999.
This paper focuses on what can be done during emergency and transition periods to promote sustainable peace, in the aftermath of complex political emergencies in Africa, with particular reference to issues of reconciliation and justice. There is no common understanding of the political conditions under which efforts at reconciliation should be minimal in relation to a focus on justice in order to achieve the 'best' peace, or of those where the pursuit of justice should become paramount. There is also not even a common language of what justice and reconciliation mean in the context of post-conflict peace-building. The paper concludes that there is a much greater potential role for outsiders with regard to justice, while reconciliation is considered to be more of an internal affair in which international actors can only be present as supporters of domestic initiatives, and even then with great caution.

Osiel, Mark. Mass atrocity, collective memory, and the law. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997.
Robert W. Gordon, Johnston Professor of Law, Yale Law School "Osiel's knowledge is immense, his grasp of theories of history and collective memory very sophisticated, his approach subtle and fair-minded, his style powerful and clear. This is the best book ever written about how states construct collective memories of large-scale state brutality, about how law can be used to promote understanding of historical injustices so as to teach valuable lessons to future generations, and finally about the perils and ironies inherent in such uses of law."

Kriesberg, Louis. "Nature, Dynamics, and Phases of Intractability." In Grasping the Nettle: Analyzing Cases of Intractable Conflict. Edited by Dosi, Giovanni, ed. Washington D.C. : U.S. Institute of Peace, April 30, 2005.
The chapter reviews factors that contribute to intractibility at each stage of a conflict. In addition, it discusses steps that may be taken to reduce the sense of intractibility.

Bassiouni, M. Cherif, ed. Post-Conflict Justice, International and Comparitive Criminal Law Series. Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers, 2002.
This book focuses on the issue of transnational justice. It examines a wide range of the different types of techniques for achieving international justice. It discusses many issues concerning international justice, like the increasing need for international to hold human rights violators accountable for their actions or an assessment of the effectiveness of truth and reconciliation committees.

Simpson, Graeme. "Reconstruction and Reconciliation: Emerging From Transition." Development in Practice 7:4, 1997.
"I wish first to address some of the simplistic myths about solutions to social conflict, and then reflect on problems that I have experienced with aid efforts organized by the international community, through the UN. In this, I shall focus on Bosnia rather than on Africa. Bosnia, as part of Europe, did not suffer the apathy that characterized international responses to events in Rwanda and Burundi before 1994. The second part of my presentation will address what I see as the flawed assumptions that often underlie the emphasis on economic reconstruction in the wke of war and conflict."

Thompson, Dennis and Amy Gutmann. "The Moral Foundations of Truth Commissions." In Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commission. Edited by Rotberg, Robert I. and Dennis Thompson, eds. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Forgoing justice requires a moral justification, yet the three common notions put forward to justify TCs are incomplete on their own. The authors argue that they must be combined into a more consistent democratic perspective. First, the justification must appeal to a good or right that are moral and somehow equivalent to the justice that is being sacrificed (moral in principle). Second, the TC should be as open, inclusive, and accessible as possible (moral in perspective). Third, the justifications should be manifested in the TC's own proceedings rather than just its recommendation for other institutions (moral in practice).

Kritz, Neil J. "The Rule of Law in the Post-Conflict Phase: Building a Stable Peace." In Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to International Conflict. Edited by Crocker, Chester A., Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall, eds. Washington, D.C.: USIP Press, 1996.
The author discusses some of the structural and procedural elements essential to the functioning of the rule of law, including an independent judiciary, a law enforcement system, and a freely elected representative government. Reckoning with war crimes and other past abuses is also central to maintaining rule of law, and criminals must be held accountable for their actions. In some cases, this will involve removing government officials from their positions of power and instituting a new government. Compensation and restitution are also crucial, as well as constitutional reform and the establishment of new legal entities to deal with justice issues in the post-conflict phase.

Kriesberg, Louis. "Transforming Conflicts." In Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution, 2nd Edition. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, November 2002. Pages: 301-340.
This chapter examines the steps after a settlement is reached. It involves means by which the agreement can be sustained and help to produce peaceful coexistence. It explores how settlements may be constructed and their consequences for a lasting peace.

Lerche, Charles O. "Truth Commissions and National Reconciliation: Some Reflections on Theory and Practice." Peace and Conflict Studies 7:1, 2000.
This article provides a broad, useful, overview of contemporary truth commissions and the issues they raise. Lerche surveys commonalties and differences among various TRC experiences: South Africa, Guatemala, Chile, and Argentina. He reviews commentaries on TRCs. Further, he explores the concept of reconciliation and the tension between reconciliation and justice. Other controversial issues Lerche approaches: amnesty as price for truth (the evil compromise); reparation; individual healing vs. national healing; forgive and forget (false reconciliation); TRCs, democratization and transitional regimes; truth: whose truth? factual truth vs. moral truth; TRCs as alternative to courts and war crimes tribunals; TRCs and conflict transformation. - fr. Avruch and Vejarano 2002

Crocker, David A. "Truth Commissions, Transitional Justice, and Civil Society." In Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions. Edited by Thompson, Dennis and Robert I. Rotberg, eds. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Discusses the role of civil society, domestic and international, in contributing to transitional justice.

Long, William J. and Peter Brecke. War and Reconciliation: Reason and Emotion in Conflict Resolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, January 17, 2003.
This work offers a systematic examination of the impact of reconciliation on restoring and maintaining peace following civil and international conflicts. The book presents eleven comparative case studies of civil war and eight of international conflict. Based on these cases, the authors offer an interesting social-psychological explanation for when and why reconciliation restores social order.

Paris, Roland. "Wilson's Ghost: The Faulty Assumptions of Post-conflict Peacebuilding." In Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict. Edited by Hampson, Fen Osler, Chester A. Crocker and Pamela Aall, eds. Herndon, VA: USIP Press, July 1, 2001.
This article examines the Wilsonian idea that democracies and the democratically governed states will inherently be more peaceful then those states that are not. He argues that post-Cold War experience shows that there is something inherently flawed with this logic and offers an alternative strategy of "institutionalization before liberalization."

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Examples Illustrating this Topic:

Online (Web) Sources

Atmar, Mohammed Haneef and Jonathan Goodhand. "Afghanistan: The Challenge of "Winning the Peace"." , 2002
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]

This article discusses the reconstruction challenges faced in Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban. The authors argue that the only way to truly "win the peace" in this conflict-plagued nation, is through robust and sustained international action at a regional level.

Ningbabria, Aloyse. African Peace Team Seeks to Resolve Longstanding Hatreds. Friends Peace Teams.
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]
This report documents the work that was down by the Kibimba Peace Committee in their efforts towards building peace and reconciliation to the people of Burundi.

Atmar, Haneef and Jonathan Goodhand. "Aid, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan: What Lessons can be Learned?." , February 2002
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]

This paper focuses on aid, conflict and peacebuilding in Afghanistan. It examines the history of humanitarian assistance (HA), maps out some of the key actors and main characteristics ofthe aid system, and analyses the interaction between aid provision and the dynamics of violentconflict. In particular, it asks whether and how HA can support efforts to promote conflict prevention and peacebuilding. The report is one in a series of four working papers which consist of three country studies(Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Liberia) and a synthesis report that provides a comparative analysis and overall recommendations for aid actors.

Ignatieff, Michael. "Articles of Faith." Index On Censorship, May 1996 , May 1996
Available at: http://www.niza.nl/uk/publications/001/ignatieff.htm  [Backup Link]

Ignatieff's tone is skeptical, benevolently critical. He despairs at the assumptions behind the South African TRC - mere "articles of faith" - and explores the concept of truth in TRCs ("truth is not always good to say"): What truth? Whose truth? Other questions discuss factual vs. moral truth, the problems of shared truth, what TRCs can and cannot do, the relation between truth and identity, and can justice or truth really heal? Conclusion: perhaps reconciliation is better served by public rituals of atonement. - fr. Avruch and Vejerano 2002

Odendaal, Andries. "For All Its Flaws: The TRC as a Peacebuilding Tool." , April 1998
Available at: http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/two/6-34/p04-flaws.html  [Backup Link]

The author reflects on the paradoxes and lessons of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as an experiment in conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Negotiating Apartheid's End: South Africa's Turbulent Transition. 2005.
Available at: http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/details.cfm?id=190  [Backup Link]

An interview with Alex Boraine, Susan Collin Marks, Vincent Diba, and Sean Tait. It took courage on all sides to bridge the chasm of suspicion and hostility engendered by generations of apartheid in South Africa. The world knows about Nelson Mandela but few realize that behind the scenes thousands of South Africans of all races worked at the community level to prevent simmering tensions from erupting into chaos. Join us for those untold stories of peacemaking.

Demichelis, Julia. NGOs and Peacebuilding in Bosnia's Ethnically Divided Cities. United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
Available at: http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/early/BosniaNGO.html  [Backup Link]
This report investigates the obstacles to investment in community-based peacebuilding in Bosnia. It begins with an overview of the political boundaries in many of Bosnia's municipalities that have prevented post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation. The next section describes effective and ineffective strategies among aid donors and humanitarian-relief NGOs operating in these locales, followed by a case study of successful grassroots programs in the city of Gornji Vakuf. The report concludes with recommendations for NGOs and donor organizations.

Fitzduff, Mari and Liam O'Hagan. "Northern Ireland: Painstakingly Slow and Small Steps to Bring About Change." , 2002
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]

This article examines the series of steps that led to some semblance of peace in Northern Ireland since the 1990s.

Okuizumi, Kaoru. "Peacebuilding Mission: Lessons from the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina." Human Rights Quarterly , August 2002
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]

Based on her experiences with the UN in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the author argues that the authority to conduct investigations into alleged human rights violations is crucial to the efficacy of a human rights component working in a post-conflict environment.

Smock, David and John Prendergast. Postgenocidal Reconstruction: Building Peace in Rwanda and Burundi.
Available at: http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr990915.html  [Backup Link]
This report discusses various options for peacebuilding in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The report emphasizes the interconnectedness of the security situations in Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo.

Slim, Randa M. and Faredun Hodizoda. "Tajikistan: From Civil War to Peacebuilding." , 2002
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]

This article discusses the civil war in Tajikstan, which broke out soon after the nation declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The majority of the article focuses on the successful peace process initiated by the United Nations that led to the signing of the General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord in Tajikistan in 1997.

Will the Center Hold? Taming the Terror in Northern Ireland. 2004.
Available at: http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/details.cfm?id=174  [Backup Link]

An interview with Mark Durkan, Mari Fitzduff, David Ford, and Jane Morrice. Northern Ireland: loveliness and strife at once but, you'll hear no gunfire there today. After generations of animosities, Protestants and Catholics reach for reconcilitation. In this program, we learn from them about taming terror and the fear of it. This is an Irish tale that is both cautionary and hopeful.

Offline (Print) Sources

Villa-Vicencio, Charles. "A Different Kind of Justice: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission." Contemporary Justice Review 1, 1998.

Rothstein, Robert L., ed. After the Peace: Resistance and Reconciliation. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999.
"The fragile peace agreements that have in the post?Cold War years sought to resolve protracted conflicts fall well short of being genuine, stable settlements. This volume is concerned with how those agreements might be strengthened and, especially, how best to conceptualize the period after a tentative peace has been negotiated."

Goodman, David. Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
Unmaking apartheid, writes Goodman, is at the heart of reconciliation?[but] the results of this reconciliation process have been decidedly uneven, alternately thrilling and wrenching, inspiring and disappointing. Reconciliation has often proven to be elusive. Contradictions simply linger. - fr. Avruch & Vejerano 2002

Rigby, Andrew. Justice and Reconciliation: After the Violence. Boulder: L. Rienner, 2001.
Examines mechanisms aimed to promote reconciliation after widespread crimes. Has chapters covering post-WWII purges in Europe, Spain, Latin American truth commissions, post-communist Eastern Europe, South Africa, Palestine, and third-party intervention.

Tutu, Desmond Mpilo. "Reconciliation in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Experiences Of the Truth Commission." In The Art of Peace: Nobel Peace Laureates Discuss Human Rights, Conflict and Reconciliation. Edited by Hopkins, Jeffrey, ed. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2000.
There is little theory here but a great deal of practice at the highest level. The setting is an informal conversation among Nobel Peace laureates, full of humor and serious reflection. Tutu defends the amnesty-for-truth compromise made by the South African TRC, in his view a better option than Nuremberg-type trials or a Chile-style blanket amnesty. Rigoberta Mench and Bobby Muller, however, probe the personal accountability and justice issues associated with amnesty. Based on his experience, and on a hopeful note, Tutu tells the peoples of Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Angola, Burundi, and others: [after South Africa] your problem can't ever be described as intractable again. - fr. Avruch & Vejerano 2002

Winslow, Tom. "Reconciliation: The Road to Healing? Collective Good, Individual Harm?." Track Two 6:3&4, 1997.
Article questions the assumption that individual and national healing can occur concurrently and whether reconciliation really does heal. South Africa's TRC, while reconciliation was an overarching goal, no apparatus existed to achieve it. The only potential item was a seldom used section of the law creating the TRC that allowed it to offer victim-offender mediation. Argues that at the national level the TRC has been an effective reconciliation mechanism.

Muchenga Chicuecue, Noel. "Reconciliation: The Role of Truth Commissions and Alternative Ways of Healing." Development in Practice 7:4, 1997.
The article uses the Mozambique as an example to argue that reconciliation can have different meanings in different cultures. Addressing the past can be akin to a paradox in that emotions create demands for justice, but this in turn creates high costs on those potentially found guilty. In practice, it is difficult to strike a balance between truth and amnesty. For reconciliation to be sustainable, parties must gain confidence in each other, must become interdependent.

Roniger, Luis and Mario Sznajder. The Legacy of Human Rights Violation in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999.
This book examines how Argentina, Chile and Uraguay deals with a history of human rights violations. In the 1970's these three countries faced a break down in democracy and thus experienced many violations of human rights. When the the countries re-democratized they faced a struggle between standards of human rights. This book examines how each country dealt with redefining standards of human rights given their terrible past.

Shea, Dorothy. The South African Truth Commission: The Politics of Reconciliation. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000.
Reviews circumstances surrounding the creation and operation of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. discusses lessons for countries that may want to utilize truth commissions in the future.

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