Memory and Reconciliation

Abstract

The students of Reconciliation Studies divide themselves on whether the material or the ideational factors drive the result of reconciliation (Lind, 2010; Long & Brecke, 2003). Within the ideational camp, a group of them puts significant weight on remembrance of the past when they explain why reconciliation succeeds or fails in a specific case (Chirwa, 1997; He, 2009g; Kopstein, 1997; Norval, 1998; Shaw, 2007). The memory between the former belligerents becomes collective when it goes beyond a single country’s account and shared by both of the two parties. The linkage between the collective memory and the variation of reconciliation exists. Thus, this chapter devotes to test the causality between the two.