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The Puzzle of Reconciliation after Genocide and the Role of Social Identities: Evidence from Burundi and Rwanda
[working paper]
Corporate Editor
Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21)
Abstract The question of how societies emerging from genocide manage to return to normalcy, restore social relationships and lay the foundation for sustainable peace, is a puzzling one. The guiding hypothesis underlying this research paper is that identity politics are a key factor for explaining the success... view more
The question of how societies emerging from genocide manage to return to normalcy, restore social relationships and lay the foundation for sustainable peace, is a puzzling one. The guiding hypothesis underlying this research paper is that identity politics are a key factor for explaining the successes and failures of reconciliation processes. We still know very little about the causal mechanisms underlying reconciliation, one of the reasons for this being the near-total absence of interdisciplinary work on this issue. However, one cannot fully grasp reconciliation dynamics - which play out at the micro- and macro-levels - without synthesizing insights from different disciplines. The paper compares two post-genocide societies - Burundi and Rwanda - which have adopted extremely different approaches to identity politics and reconciliation. Whereas imposing a superordinate identity in a top-down process has not been very effective in either case, there is some evidence suggesting that bottom-up cooperation has been rather successful in promoting reconciliation in Rwanda. Transitional justice in turn plays an ambivalent role. It seems that TJ can only be effective if it is perceived as being applied in an even-handed fashion, and if the political environment is supportive of accountabilityseeking. Neither condition is entirely fulfilled in Rwanda or Burundi.... view less
Keywords
Central Africa; genocide; Rwanda; peacekeeping; Burundi; conflict management; reconciliation
Classification
Peace and Conflict Research, International Conflicts, Security Policy
Free Keywords
conflict resolution; transitional justice; social identity theory; self-categorization theory; post-conflict; micro-macro level
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
City
Duisburg
Page/Pages
36 p.
Series
Global Cooperation Research Papers, 23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14282/2198-0411-GCRP-23
ISSN
2198-0411
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed