IARS

The IARS, which was established on August 10, 2020, has united members from all five continents. Our mission is to convene activists, academics, and politicians from all segments of society regardless of ethnicity, nationality, region, race, or gender and to support the advancement of peace and reconciliation. We hope that our collective approach to reconciliation studies will provide a basis for cooperative cultural and educational policy and global citizenship, which will, in turn, increase our ability to address global issues facing all of us today, such as poverty, the environment, infectious disease and the clash of ethnic and national identities. The IARS hosts a conference in a different part of the world, rotating between Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa in order to promote inclusivity. We kindly invite you to attend our conference and join our efforts to promote values of peace and reconciliation around the world.

Reconciliation Studies is a relatively young research paradigm that emerged in the context of “transitional” societies such as South Africa or Rwanda. It is distinct from "classical" research approaches to peace and conflict: Whereas conventional peace approaches focus primarily on structural and institutional factors of peacemaking, Reconciliation Studies focuses particularly on the relational aspect and thus on emotional and cognitive factors of conflict prevention, transformation and resolution, without ignoring structural and supra-individual conditions. From the perspective of Reconciliation Studies, it is possible to ask how normal and, if possible, good, relations can be established within a society or context, at all levels: intrapersonal and interpersonal, intercollective (in the domestic and/or interstate sphere), and institutional, while taking into account both top-down and bottom-up processes. Reconciliation is not only a private matter, but reconciliation processes have to be implemented at the same time through policies of reconciliation, e.g. coming to terms with the past through: justice and punishment; truth and reconciliation commissions; perpetrator-victim settlements and reparations; the development of security measures; spaces for victims, perpetrators, and other members of society to discuss experiences and promote memory. Truth and justice are essential components of Reconciliation Studies, especially restorative justice (as opposed to punitive justice) in order to integrate the needs of perpetrators, victims, and the larger community/society.

IARS conferences offer a space in which case studies as well as theories, models and conceptions relevant to reconciliation are brought into conversation with current fields of discourse (social justice, ecological justice and sustainability studies, refugee studies, migration studies, memory studies, etc.). The conference is inter- and trans-disciplinary including approaches from psychology, philosophy, education, sociology, economics, law, political science, history, economics, regional studies, communication studies, art, and theology.