Just and unjust peace: An ethic of political reconciliation.

Source: (2012) New York: Oxford University Press.

In the wake of massive injustice, how can justice be achieved and peace restored? Is it possible to find a universal standard that will work for people of diverse and often conflicting religious, cultural, and philosophical backgrounds? In Just and Unjust Peace, Daniel Philpott offers an innovative and hopeful response to these questions. He challenges the approach to peacebuilding that dominates the United Nations, Western governments, and the human rights community. While he shares their commitment to human rights and democracy, Philpott argues that these values alone cannot redress the wounds caused by war, genocide and dictatorship. Both justice and he effective restoration of political order call for am ore holistic, restorative approach. Philpott answers that call by proposing a form of political reconciliation that is deeply rooted in three religious traditions — Christianity, Islam, and Judaism — as well as the restorative justice movement. These traditions offer the fullest expressions of the core concepts of justice, mercy, and peace. By adapting these ancient concepts to modern constitutional democracy and international norms, Philpott crafts an ethic that has widespread appeal and offers real hope for the restoration of justice fractured communities. From the roots of these traditions, Philpott develops six practices — building justice institutions and relations between states, acknowledgement, reparations, restorative punishment, apology and, most important, forgiveness — which he then applies to real cases identifying how each practices redresses a unique set of wounds. (Publisher’s description)