Introduction: rethinking reconciliation and transitional justice after conflict

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe concepts of reconciliation and transitional justice are the foundations for a new body of connected normative meta-theories that address conflict transformation and peace building. The articles in this special issue provide a comparative perspective on the concepts and their implementation. The articles are primarily focused on intra-state conflicts. A range of cases involving different types of conflict are included, including those driven by ethnic, racial, religious and ideological factors, and different regimes from authoritarian to democratic states, and cases where colonial legacies and mentalities endure. The articles offer critical reflections on the contradictory logics between external construction of norms and the efforts at their domestic imposition, adoption, and distortion and obstruction in conflict states and societies. These processes are not linear but vary over time. The ambiguities in the concepts are also often magnified by political considerations, which make the peace processes new stages in the conflict.