Reconciliation after Terrorism：Strategy, Possibility or Absurdity?

Reconciliation after Terrorism brings together scholars from the hitherto disparate fields of terrorism and reconciliation studies, in order to examine whether reconciliation is a possible strategy for dealing with and ending a terrorist conflict.
Although terrorist activities often play a role in situations of conflict and transition, terrorists are generally not taken into consideration as active participants by researchers and practitioners. In some cases, the terrorists turn into political actors during the reconciliation process and their past is not an issue anymore, as it was the case with the ANC in South Africa. This book examines the notion of reconciliation with terrorists from a theoretical and empirical perspective.
The notion of engagement and reconciliation with terrorist groups is generally seen as problematic, if not impossible. This is somewhat surprising, given that the idea of societal reconciliation has become a common response to state terror- although not usually in situations of conflict with sub-state terrorist actors. Similar to state terror, sub-state terrorism is a sign of a deep societal rift which reconciliation measures may help to overcome. The text investigates the reconciliatory process further, raising the central questions: (a) what constitutes ‘reconciliation’ as a process and an outcome; and (b) how can reconciliation be facilitated in a situation of social conflict.
This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, transitional justice, conflict resolution, peace and conflict studies and IR in general.

Judith Renner is a Research Fellow at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
Alexander Spencer is an Assistant Professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.

Introduction: Reconciling the Seemingly Irreconcilable?, Judith Renner and Alexander Spencer Part I: Theoretical Reflections on Reconciliation after Terrorism 1. Orthodox Terrorism Theory and Reconciliation: The Transition out of Terrorism, Jason Franks 2. Marginalizing 'Victims' and 'Terrorists': Modes of Exclusion in the Reconciliation Process, Michael Humphrey Part II: Empirical Case Studies of Reconciliation in Terrorist Conflicts 3. Reconciliation following Terrorism in South Tyrol: A Successful Story of Peacemaking by Consociational Democracy and Power-Sharing, Günther Pallaver and Manuel Fasser 4. Reconciliation and Paramilitaries in Nothern Ireland, Marie Breen Smyth 5. Reconciliation with 'Terrorists': Understanding the Legacy of Terror in South Africa, Nokukhanya Mncwabe and Hugo van der Merwe 6. Overcoming Terrorism in Peru without Negogiation or Reconciliation, David Scott Palmer 7. Undermining Reconciliation: Colombian Peace Spoilers in- and outside the Negogiation Process, Katrin Planta and Carolin Goerzig 8. Talking: A Potential Path to Reconciliation in Mindanao, Harmonie Toros 9. Terror, Empathy and Reconciliation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Yehudith Auerbach and Ifat Klang-Maoz 10. Conclusion: The (im)Possibility of Reconciliation in Afghanistan and the 'War on Terror', Judith Renner and Alexander Spencer