Ethics of Political Commemoration

Hans Gutbrod is Associate Professor at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, and Senior Fellow, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Seton Hall University. He has worked in the Caucasus since 1999, was the Regional Director of the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (2006 to 2012), and regularly supports think tank research around the world.

David Wood is Professor of Practice at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University. He has 18 years' experience of promoting conflict transformation in violent settings, establishing the peacebuilding organisation Peaceful Change initiative (2011), and the MENA program at the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies (2018).

This book proposes a new Ethics of Political Commemoration adapted from the Just War tradition, reflecting that remembrance is often conducted with political - and even coercive - intent. With its Ius ad Memoriam (what to commemorate) and Ius in Memoria (how to commemorate) criteria, the framework looks to guide debates that are currently inchoate so that remembrance of the past can transform relationships in the present and build a shared future. Offering a moral argument with memorable illustrations, Gutbrod and Wood draw on experiences from Armenia, Georgia, Ireland, Lebanon, and Libya, while connecting to mainstream debates in Western Europe and the United States. Bringing together an ethical tradition with the practice of conflict transformation, the framework fuses two perspectives that enrich each other. The book, in providing a first systematic presentation of the ethics, seeks to engage citizens and scholars, and help those who work to transform conflicts.