Reconciliation in the Aftermath of Violent Conflict

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

How do societies reconcile in the aftermath of intergroup conflict? The violence caused by intergroup conflict is the very reason why reconciliation becomes needed, but how and whether reconciliation is possible is a question that continues to demand the attention of both the academic and policymaking community. This panel brings together four projects that explore various dimensions of reconciliation processes in a causally identified manner. Across four countries—Columbia, Northern Ireland, Israel, and the former Yugoslavia—with different legacies of violent conflict, the panel addresses important questions about what does, and does not, work to foster reconciliation in the aftermath of intergroup conflict.

In Columbia, Andrés Casas, Sandra Polania-Reyes, and Boaz Hameiri present a quasi-experimental field study on the effects of exposure to a documentary film about one family’s attempt at forgiveness after decades of conflict. In particular, the research evaluates how the film affected the audience’s perceptions, dispositions, and attitudes towards FARC ex-combatants and the process of integration and forgiveness to facilitate the construction of peace in Colombia. Bringing together filmmakers, social scientists, and audiences, this innovative research shine light on the power of art to reduce intergroup hostility and promote peace.

In Northern Ireland, examining whether transitional justice museums can influence the way visitors think about the past and modern-day politics, Laia Balcells and Elsa Voytas present an experimental field study that randomly assigned participants to exhibits at the Ulstar Museum in Belfast. In the treatment group, participants visited an exhibit that recounted the violence during the Troubles, whereas in the control condition the participants visited a natural science exhibit. Evaluating intergroup attitudes, preferences for transitional justice, and political trust both after the intervention and six months later, their findings suggest that commemoration in the form of a museum has little effect on intergroup attitudes in post-conflict settings—and even might polarize some social groups along the master cleavage of the conflict. This research shows both the potential opportunities and pitfalls of post-conflict commemoration.

In Israel, Renana Atia, Meital Balmas, Tal Orian Harel, and Eran Halperin present a survey experiment examining the unaddressed potential of validating feelings of surprise among right-leaning Jewish participants after exposure to counter-stereotypes of Arabs. Right-leaning participants were less inclined to social distance from Arabs and perceived Arabs as less homogeneous when exposed to the validation treatment, while left-leaning participants remained unaffected by this validation. This research shows how validating the feeling of surprise that arises after exposure to an outgroup counter-stereotypical individual can reshape the previously learned stereotypes, attitudes, and beliefs about outgroups among those with internalized, rigid attitudes.

In the former Yugoslavia, Marko Kljajić and Nadav Shelef present a quasi-experimental study on the effects of social housing policy on intergroup attitudes immediately before the Yugoslav Wars and after thirty years of relative peace in the region. The allocation of social housing by state-owned firms in a manner plausibly exogenous to their attitudes towards non-coethnics allows for the casual identification of the impact of living in social housing on intergroup attitudes and subsequent national reconciliation thirty years after conflict. This research shows into how pre-conflict social context may have shaped pathways of individual socialization that have consequences for conflict and opportunities for post-conflict reconciliation.

These four projects provide insight into processes of reconciliation in the aftermath of violent conflict. Each project offers a theoretical innovation and a practical application on how to build or rebuild social and political relationships based on trust and cohesion. This panel will be of interest to policymakers and scholars of conflict processes and post-conflict reconstruction as well as to students of comparative politics and international relations more broadly.

Sub Unit

• Division 21: Conflict Processes

Individual Presentations

• Effects of a Cinematic Documentary Film on Support for Peace in Colombia - ANDRES CASAS, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

• The Impact of a Museum Exhibit on Post-conflict Views in Northern Ireland - Laia Balcells, Georgetown University; Elsa Voytas, Dartmouth College

• The Long-Term Effects of Social Housing in the Former Yugoslavia - Marko Kljajic, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Nadav G. Shelef, University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Memorialization Politics and Support for the Far Right - Ethan vanderWilden, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Chair

• Joan Barcelo New York University Abu Dhabi

Discussant

• Joan Barcelo New York University Abu Dhabi