Political Apologies for Historical Injustices: Engaging with Questions of Power, Utility, and Impact

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of the special forum is to analyze political apologies through a variety of critical lenses in order to evaluate their efficacy for conflict mediation and redress of historical injustice. The proliferation of group apologies in the 1990s and 2000s led some scholars to herald the arrival of an “age of apology.” However, the task of assessing the impacts of these apologies and gauging their potential for fostering reconciliation has remained unfinished. The scholarship has been characterized by alternating currents of idealism and realism, but much of the work has been intuitive rather than empirical, and there is little agreement as to the evaluative criteria. With these papers, we take stock of what has been learned about political apologies, and we seek new avenues for exploration. Critics are right to question the unequal power structures that apologies sometimes reinforce, and it is important to understand how apologies leave crucial aspects of injustice untouched. At the same time, the prevalence of apologies in international affairs and the propensity of both perpetrators and victims to seek acknowledgment through the discourse of apologies suggest that continued study of apologies is warranted. Probing the performative aspects of apologies and dissecting their contradictions does not foreclose the possibility of their also having value for improving intergroup relationships, deepening historical understanding, and enacting justice, for example, by strengthening demands for reparations. Nor should we abandon efforts to understand what moral substance these apologies may convey, simply because we have seen how they can be cynically manipulated.