The Nature of Reconciliation as an Outcome and as a Process.

Source: (2004) In Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, ed., From conflict resolution to reconciliation. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 11-38.

The authors review recent literature on reconciliation and suggest that it is both and outcome and a process that goes beyond the resolution of conflict and that is actually responsible for building genuine and sustainable peace. To analyse reconciliation, they first consider classifications of conflict processes. Deeply rooted, protracted social conflicts require more than resolution for the development of lasting peace. Such relations involve broadly based acceptance of the other party, with mutual consideration and normalised relations between the societies. The authors go on to define reconciliation in terms of the psychological changes required for this peace. Then they describe changes and methods that characterize reconciliation as an active and arduous process.