Apologia Politica

Girma Negash is professor of political science at the University of South Carolina, Aiken.

A decade and a half ago Nicholas Tavuchis noted that a genuine apology on behalf of a political body 'is an accomplishment of no mean order.' Girma Negash's Apologia Politica is a like accomplishment. He knows the differences between failed and successful apologies by high officials concerning the low deeds of state-sponsored atrocity. The book is a triumph of interdisciplinary research and writing. It combines historical accuracy, political realism, and moral insight concerning one of the greatest of all political challenges: how to mend and heal relations between victims and perpetrators of vast evil? Negash describes credible apology as a combination of acknowledgment of a collective wrong, identification of those responsible, public truth-telling about the wrong, and citizen-supported remorse. It is a rigorous formula. If citizens and political leaders of our vexed global community learn to practice that rigor, the twenty-first century might yet recover from the collective sins of the twentieth. Here is wise guidance into the realization of that hope.

• Chapter 1 The Problematic of Political ApologyChapter 2 German-Jewish (Israeli) Relations: From Zealous Accountability to Belated ApologyChapter 3 A Political Calculus of Apology: Japan and Its NeighborsChapter 4 Voices and Silences in Mourning RwandaChapter 5 Diplomacy and Crocodile Tears: U.S. Apologies to ChinaChapter 6 The Limits and Potential of Political ApologiesChapter 7 BibliographyChapter 8 Index