Dr. Carolina Rehrmann is PostDoc at the Chair for International Relations at the Institute of Political Science and Executive Manager of the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies at Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena.
Prof. Rafael Biermann is Chair of International Relations (Professor für Internationale Beziehungen) at Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena.

Dr. Phillip Tolliday is Senior Lecturer in the School of Theology for Charles Sturt University and Academic Dean at St. Barnabas' College, Adelaide, Australia.

Martin Leiner ist Professor für Systematische Theologie mit Schwerpunkt Ethik an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena.

The volume is concerned with strategies of conflict resolution. It encompasses case studies of the Caucasus and the Balkan and aims at understanding the socio-emotional root causes of political cleavages, the impact of competing narratives and unprocessed pasts on exclusive identities and strategic political choices. Applying reconciliation theory, insights from collective memory and transitional justice to a series of selected field studies, it sheds light on the origins of interethnic violence, aims at finding explanations for the fact that many conflicts have become intractable and discusses the chances and challenges for their resolution.

As yet unprecedented studies of the Caucasus and the Balkans aimed at reconciliation

The volume is concerned with strategies of conflict resolution. It encompasses case studies of the Caucasus and the Balkan and aims at understanding the socio-emotional root causes of political cleavages, the impact of competing narratives and unprocessed pasts on exclusive identities and strategic political choices. Applying reconciliation theory, insights from collective memory and transitional justice to a series of selected field studies, it sheds light on the origins of interethnic violence, aims at finding explanations for the fact that many conflicts have become intractable and discusses the chances and challenges for their resolution.

Since the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions have been faced with multiple upheavals of interethnic violence, bloody secessions and ethnic cleansing. Up to the present, both regions are confronted with unresolved border, minority and security issues, matters of recognition, protracted traumata and claims for justice. After the fall of the iron curtain, simmering ethnic tensions turned into hot wars that created new states, new power-political hierarchies and a heritage of violence. Reaching back to the early 1990s, several international and national transitional justice measures have been applied to face these heritages and lay the foundations for a common future. For the former Yugoslavia, they range from broad criminal trials to a series of restorative justice mechanisms; in the North and South Caucasus they encompass numerous mediation measures and primarily restorative justice efforts.The present volume is concerned with strategies of conflict resolution and prevention subsumed under the concept of reconciliation. It aims at understanding the socio-emotional root causes of political cleavages and daily realities of (post-) conflict societies, especially regarding the impact of competing narratives and unprocessed pasts on exclusive identities and strategic political choices. Applying reconciliation theory, insights from collective memory and transitional justice to a series of selected field studies, it sheds light on the origins of interethnic violence, aims at finding explanations for the fact that many of the above-mentioned conflicts have become intractable and discusses the chances and challenges for transforming interests, emotions, perspectives, roles and identities between and within the respective societies.