Book Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations -- Introduction -- The dilemma: justice vs. peace -- Justice and peace: lessons -- Transitional justice and peacebuilding: moving beyond common debates -- Peace vs. justice: learning from experience -- Peace vs. justice: beyond simple dichotomies -- Seeking peace, seeking justice: arguments for punishment and amnesty -- Practical and ethical bases for punishment -- Practical and moral grounds for amnesty -- Choosing between peace and justice while seeking long-term peace and justice -- The findings and lessons -- Notes -- 1 What makes accountability possible? -- Introduction -- The dilemma -- The existing literature -- Factors affecting accountability -- The players in transitions -- The factors in depth: theoretical discussion -- The nature of past abuses and conflict -- The role of external and international factors -- Civil-military relations and the balance of forces -- Strategies and trade-offs of transition: lessons from military corporatism -- Militaries, society and intervention -- Militaries, transitions and democratization: more recent arguments -- Militaries and transitions: hypotheses about strategies and trade-offs -- Conclusions -- Notes -- 2 Global experiences in transitional justice -- Introduction -- Latin America and the Caribbean -- El Salvador -- Argentina -- Honduras -- Uruguay -- Guatemala -- Chile -- Brazil -- Bolivia -- Haiti -- Southern Europe -- Greece -- Portugal -- Spain -- Eastern Europe -- Czechoslovakia (later the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic) -- East Germany -- Hungary -- Bulgaria -- Albania -- Poland -- Romania -- Russia -- Lithuania -- Africa -- South Africa -- Asia -- South Korea -- The Philippines -- Cambodia -- Sri Lanka -- Notes -- 3 El Salvador -- Introduction -- A brief history.

Negotiating peace: events and accords -- Developments after the peace accords -- The ad hoc commission -- The truth commission -- El Salvador today: 'UN success story' -- Trade-offs of transition -- Accountability for rights abuses -- Budgetary concerns -- Institutional reform -- Police reform -- Reform of the armed forces -- The military and the transition -- Discussion: key elements of political change -- Duration of conflict -- International factors -- Balance of forces/civil-military issues -- Trade-offs -- Lessons -- Notes -- 4 Argentina -- Introduction -- A brief history -- The human rights movement -- Democratization: the Alfonsín regime -- The legacy of the past: Alfonsín's policies -- Revealing the truth: CONADEP -- Pursuit of accountability: the trials and their consequences -- Democratization: the Menem regime -- The mixed legacy of human rights in Argentina -- Strategies of transition in the face of a recalcitrant military -- Human rights accountability: a promise largely deferred -- Institutional reform -- Budgetary concerns -- Factors enabling or inhibiting accountability -- Civil-military relations/balance of forces -- External factors -- Nature/extent of abuses and conflict -- Absence of external actors: can peacekeepers and peacebuilders learn from Argentina? -- Lessons -- Notes -- 5 Honduras -- Introduction -- A brief history -- Tentative civilianization -- The tentative beginnings of transition: the Reina regime -- Trade-offs of transition -- Budget -- Institutional reform -- Accountability -- Relevant factors: analysis -- Balance of forces -- International involvement -- Length and intensity of conflict -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 6 South Africa -- Introduction -- A brief history -- Forty-plus years of apartheid -- The politics of transition -- The question of amnesty -- The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee -- Amnesty.

Other cases at the TRC -- Prosecutions and the legacy of the past -- Reparation and rehabilitation -- The report -- Trade-offs of transition -- Accountability -- Institutional reform -- Budgetary reductions -- Factors enabling or hindering accountability -- International -- Civil-military relations and the balance of forces generally -- Nature/extent of abuses or struggle -- Lessons -- Notes -- 7 Sri Lanka -- Introduction -- Overview -- History of the conflict -- The constitution, emergency and restrictions on fundamental rights -- Nascent attempts at reform -- The question of devolution -- The question of accountability -- Accountability and prosecution -- Reactions of the security forces to commissions and prosecutions -- Trade-offs: the security forces, reform and accountability -- Accountability -- Institutional reform: context and progress -- Military budgets -- Discussion: key elements of political change -- International factors -- Duration of conflict -- Balance of forces/civil-military issues -- Lessons -- Notes -- Conclusion -- Introduction -- Beyond peace vs. justice: a continuum -- Choices of transition: the ethical dilemma -- Choices of transition: pragmatic practice -- International factors -- The balance of forces -- The nature and extent of past abuses and repression -- Strategies of transition -- The wider array of cases -- The case studies -- El Salvador -- Argentina -- Honduras -- South Africa -- Sri Lanka -- Lessons -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

This book examines what makes accountability for previous violations more or less possible for transitional regimes to achieve. It closely examines the other vital goals of such regimes against which accountability is often balanced. The options available are not simply prosecution or pardon, as the most heated polemics of the debate over transitional justice suggest, but a range of options from complete amnesty through truth commissions and lustration or purification to prosecutions. The question, then, is not whether or not accountability can be achieved, but what degree of accountability can be achieved by a given country. The focus of the book is on the politics of transition: what makes accountability more or less feasible and what strategies are deployed by regimes to achieve greater accountability (or alternatively, greater reform). The result is a more nuanced understanding of the different conditions and possibilities that countries face, and the lesson that there is no one-size-fits-all prescription that can be handed to transitional regimes.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.