Justice and reconciliation in world politics

Calls for justice and reconciliation in response to political catastrophes are widespread in contemporary world politics. What implications do these normative strivings have in relation to colonial injustice? Examining cases of colonial war, genocide, forced sexual labor, forcible incorporation, and dispossession, Lu demonstrates that international practices of justice and reconciliation have historically suffered from, and continue to reflect, colonial, statist and other structural biases. The continued reproduction of structural injustice and alienation in modern domestic, international and transnational orders generates contemporary duties of redress. How should we think about the responsibility of contemporary agents to address colonial structural injustices and what implications follow for the transformation of international and transnational orders? Redressing the structural injustices implicated in or produced by colonial politics requires strategies of decolonization, decentering, and disalienation that go beyond interactional practices of justice and reconciliation, beyond victims and perpetrators, and beyond a statist world order.
Reviews
'Can political theorists meaningfully address significant concepts such as justice, without a nod to the massive injustice perpetrated on the colonised world? Catherine Lu in this marvellously readable book suggests it is time that theories of justice in the ‘here and now’, take histories of injustice and of reparation seriously. This fine work charts out the historical making of contemporary predicaments in the best tradition of political theory.'
Neera Chandhoke - University of Delhi, India
'Reconcilation is now a major topic in international relations, whether between Asian states trying to overcome the legacy of World War II, or the tensions between governments and indigenous citizens with a history of unjust treatment. Catherine Lu's book is a powerful and rigorous argument that we need to rethink understandings of reconciliation and reposition them in a world where justice is constructed in ways that go beyond traditional state-to-state relations. The book combines extensive empirical case studies with a sure-footed account of the important theoretical literature, providing a major new contribution to the field.'
Rana Mitter - University of Oxford