War and Reconciliation: Reason and Emotion in Conflict Resolution

This book is the first systematic examination of the impact of reconciliation onrestoring and maintaining peace following civil and international conflicts. Through elevencomparative case studies of civil war and eight of international conflict, it constructs asurprising explanation for when and why reconciliation restores social order.The civil war casesreveal that successful reconciliation is associated with a process of national forgiveness, notmerely negotiated settlement. All successful cases followed a four-step pattern of public truthtelling, justice short of revenge, redefinition of the identities of former belligerents, and a callfor a new relationship. The book argues that success is not solely the result of rational choicedecision making. It proposes a hypothesis, grounded in evolutionary psychology, that to restoresocial order we use emotional/cognitive techniques that have evolved to ensure human survival.On theinternational level, however, successful reconciliation was not a part of a forgiveness process.Reconciliation was successful in bringing about sustained peace when it was associated with asignaling process -- an exchange of costly, novel, voluntary, and irrevocable concessions in anegotiated bargain. This result is consistent with realist notions of the limits of internationalsociety and illustrates the context in which a rational choice model is appropriate. The book'sapproach, integrating emotion with reasoning and linking political science to scientific research inother disciplines, particularly biology and neuroscience, has broad implications for social sciencetheory.

William J. Long is Professor and Chair at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology.