This work asks "How do newly democratic nations put to rest the conflicts of the past?" Beginning with an examination of reconciliation on the political and psychological level, it covers the quality of peace as it has been forged in the civil conflicts in Rwanda, South Africa, Chile and Guatemala.

Introduction Part One: Concepts 1. Making Peace or Doing Justice: Must We Choose? Nigel Biggar 2. Where and When in Political Life Is Justice Served by Forgiveness? Donald W. Shriver 3. Politics and Forgiveness Jean Bethke Elshtain 4. The Philosophy and Practice of Dealing with the Past: Some Conceptual and Normative Issues Tuomas ForsbergPart Two: Dimensions 5. Innovating Responses to the Past: Human Rights Institutions Martha Minow 6. National and Community Reconciliation: Competing Agendas in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission Hugo van der Merwe 7. Putting the Past in Its Place: Issues of Victimhood and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland's Peace Process Marie Smyth 8. Does the Truth Heal? A Psychological Perspective on Political Strategies for Dealing with the Legacy of Political Violence Brandon Hamber Part Three: Cases 9. Passion, Constraint, Law and Fortuna: The Human Rights Challenge to Chilean Democracy Alexandra Barahona de Brito 10. War, Peace, and the Politics of Memory in Guatemala Rachel Sieder 11. Restorative Justice in Social Context: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission Charles Villa-Vicencio 12. Rwanda: Dealing with Genocide and Crimes against Humanity in the Contextof Armed Conflict and Failed Political Transition Stef Vandeginste 13. Northern Ireland: Burying the Hatchet, Not the Past Terence McCaughey Part Four: Conclusion Conclusion Nigel Biggar Epilogue: Burying the Past after September 11 Nigel Biggar