EXPERIENCE OF NATIONAL RECONCILIATION: DIFFERENT WAYS TO ONE TARGET

Keywords: war, violence, memory, justice, national reconciliation

Abstract

The article considers some problems connected with inner national conflicts and attempts of national reconciliation. It contains examples from newest history of France, Spain, Nothern Ireland and South Africa – countries which have such experience in their past. The relevance of the article is based on the fact that local conflicts and their consequences became one of the greatest threats to international security at the end of the XX – the beginning of the XXI centuries. At a certain stage of escalation, they turn into cross-border conflicts that are usually accompanied by grave human rights violations, crimes against humanity and humanitarian catastrophes, and lead to uncontrolled mass migrations. Thus, the aim of overcoming such conflicts and achieving national reconciliation becomes a matter of not only national but also international security.

 The examples analyzed in the article show different ways to overcome internal conflicts and achieve national reconciliation. One can state that none of them is perfect. In France, the restoration of national unity was achieved through the repression of certain social elements. In Northern Ireland and the Republic of South Africa, the national reconciliation, despite considerable efforts to achieve it, is still a goal rather than a fact. In the case of Spain, wide- ranging political and economic reforms, an increase of civil liberties and regional rights as the result of the Moncloa pact, eventually led to the rising of separatism in Catalonia as a new challenge to national unity.

We can conclude that, despite the perspectiveness of the concept of national reconciliation as well as lack of other alternatives, we still can’t develop its universal model. Every state which suffered from internal conflicts must find its way to national unity, using foreign experience according to its own specifics.

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Published
2019-07-02
How to Cite
Lytvynenko, O. (2019). EXPERIENCE OF NATIONAL RECONCILIATION: DIFFERENT WAYS TO ONE TARGET. Strategic Priorities, 49(1), 44-57. Retrieved from https://niss-priority.com/index.php/journal/article/view/237