APOLOGIA POLITICA. STATES AND THEIR APOLOGIES BY PROXY.

Apologia Politica defines and explores the nature of public apology. Focusing on collectivities and their agencies in the apology process, author Girma Negash examines public apology as ethical and public discourse, recommends criteria for the apology process, analyzes historical and contemporary cases, and formulates a guide to ethical conduct in public apologies. This is a groundbreaking work, elaborating upon the interface between ethics and statecraft in the domain of public apology. Using democracy, moral identity, and accumulated wisdom as a yardstick in the prescription of ethical conduct, Apologia Politica proposes four imperatives for successful public apology: acknowledgement; public exposure and truth-telling; remorse through public record; and, finally, defining identity for accountability. It is a valuable resource for those interested in peace-building or the relationships between Germany and Israel, Japan and its neighboring countries, the international community and Rwanda, and the United States and China.

Girma Negash is professor of political science at the University of South Carolina, Aiken.