Peace without Justice: The Theory and Politics of Oblivion

Abstract

The fundamental question at the heart of this dissertation is as follows: how do you get people to coexist as they emerge from violent conflict and as events in their collective past conjure up feelings of resentment, anger, and hatred against one group or another? The peace and reconciliation literature predominantly focuses on and promotes forgiveness, justice, and truth as pathways to peace. This dissertation aims to show that it is not always prudent or morally superior to rely on these pathways. Through a recovery of the concept of oblivion – which was once a viable, if not preferable, peacemaking strategy – this project explores an alternative strategy for peace and reconciliation. I examine the limits of forgiveness and transitional justice in peacebuilding efforts and provide prudential and normative arguments for why a thin form of reconciliation needs to be taken more seriously (at least initially) in the non-ideal process of peacemaking after civil conflict. In Part I of the dissertation, I first recover and reconstruct oblivion as acting as if one has forgotten, distinguishing it as a concept relating to the regulation of conduct, not memory, which aims to make the past illegitimate grounds for litigating the present. Further, I analyze oblivion’s legal and social dimensions and demonstrate how it can promote peace and thin reconciliation. Then, I examine acts of oblivion in practice, with a specific focus on the 1660 English Act of Free and Generall Pardon Indempnity and Oblivion. In Part II of the dissertation, I make the case for oblivion on both prudential and moral grounds. First, I focus on the issue that the lack of a common narrative presents for peacemaking and the way in which oblivion presents itself as a pragmatic and morally legitimate strategy for contending with this issue. Then I show how oblivion’s prioritization of peace over justice can be justified. Finally, I conclude with some remarks on how oblivion can potentially serve as an alternative peacemaking strategy in contemporary civil conflicts.