The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights) [Hardcover]

Mark Gibney (Editor), Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann (Editor), Jean-Marc Coicaud (Editor), Niklaus Steiner (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0812240332 | ISBN-13: 978-0812240337 | Publication Date: October 24, 2007

In a turnabout of the cynical belief that might makes right, nations now see fit to issue apologies to peoples and countries they have wronged. We live in an age that seeks to establish political truth, perhaps best exemplified by the creation of truth commissions in societies seeking to emerge from dictatorial pasts. The most noteworthy result of these efforts has been the near-universal realization that a society will not be able successfully to pass into the future until it somehow deals with the horrors of its past.

A number of Western states and institutions have sought to come to terms with their relationships to non-Western states and peoples. Powerful actors and institutions are apologizing to the relatively powerless. What do these apologies mean? Are they an indication of a new international order, either politically or as they relate to international law? Or are these apologies fleeting and insignificant? In The Age of Apology twenty-two law, politics, and human rights scholars explore the legal, political, social, historical, moral, religious, and anthropological aspects of Western apologies in an attempt to answer these questions. Conversely, a nonapology might be as important to study, and several chapters discuss the absence or refusal of apology and how this might be interpreted.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Well written, well analyzed, and well referenced. It will be the most comprehensive book on public apologies. Anyone who is interested in the importance of public apologies will turn to this book."—Aaron Lazare, author of On Apology

About the Author

Mark Gibney is Belk Distinguished Professor and Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. He is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of several books on international affairs and human rights, including Problems of Protection: The UNHCR and Refugees at the Beginning of the 21st Century and Five Uneasy Pieces: American Ethics in a Globalized World. Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann is Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of many books, including Economic Rights in Canada and the United States, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Jean-Marc Coicaud heads the United Nations University Office at the United Nations in New York. Niklaus Steiner is Director of the Center for Global Initiatives at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (October 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812240332
• ISBN-13: 978-0812240337
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,200,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Niklaus Steiner is the Director of the Center for Global Initiatives at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. A native of Switzerland who moved to the U.S. in his youth, Steiner has had the good fortune of moving between cultures all his life, and this experience shapes his academic focus. Steiner earned a B.A. with Highest Honors in International Studies at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in Political Science at Northwestern University. His research and teaching interests include migration, refugees, nationalism, and citizenship, and his publications include Arguing About Asylum: The Complexity of Refugee Debates in Europe (St. Martin's, 2000); The Problems of Protection: UNHCR, Refugees, and Human Rights eds. Niklaus Steiner, Mark Gibney and Gil Loescher (Routledge 2003); Regionalism in the Age of Globalism, eds. Lothar Hoennighausen, Marc Frey, James Peacock, and Niklaus Steiner (Wisconsin, 2005); and The Age of Apology: The West Confronts its Past eds. Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud and Niklaus Steiner (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). His most recent book International Migration and Citizenship Today (Routledge, 2009) is a thought-provoking examination of the ability of international migrants to move and the ability of states to control this movement.

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4.0 out of 5 stars what about the Armenians ?, July 24, 2008

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This review is from: The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights) (Hardcover)

The contributors to the book review many troubled aspects of human history. Some of these are very recent indeed. Take the case of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. One chapter looks at the Belgium responsibility for some of this, and also for its earlier actions when the Congo was the Belgian Congo. Commission were established in Belgium to ascertain Belgium's accountability.

Another recent occurrence concerned Japan's attitude towards its colonial past in east Asia, up to and including World War 2. A chapters looks at how people in several Asian countries suspect that Japan never fully took responsibility for its actions, despite the now avowedly pacifist nature of that country. The actions include the use of "comfort women" [ie. sex slaves] from China, Korea and elsewhere. The chapter also discusses psychological interpretations of Japanese attitudes towards Asian and non-Asian countries.

There are also some relatively less well known events covered here. Like the German behaviour towards Namibia when it was the German colony of South-West Africa. A bad massacre occurred of locals, by German soldiers. Some say it presaged the Holocaust, while others compare it more to other instances of European treatments of their colonies.

One country does come across relatively well in the book. Contemporary Germany, which has squarely faced what it did in the Holocaust.

The book has a curious omission. No mention of the Armenian genocide, which is now widely considered the first genocide of the 20th century. No mention even of Turkish denials that attempted genocide occurred.