Complex Political Victims

This book reframes major events like South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Holocaust, and the war in Bosnia to take into account the complex victim. It calls for a more effective and encompassing support of all types of victims, especially those not typically recognized as such. Images of the political victim are powerful, gripping, and integral in helping us makes sense of conflict, particularly in making moral calculations, determining who is good and who is evil. These images, and the discourse of ... Read More

This book reframes major events like South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Holocaust, and the war in Bosnia to take into account the complex victim. It calls for a more effective and encompassing support of all types of victims, especially those not typically recognized as such. Images of the political victim are powerful, gripping, and integral in helping us makes sense of conflict, particularly in making moral calculations, determining who is good and who is evil. These images, and the discourse of victimization that surrounds them, inform the international community when deciding to recognize certain individuals as victims and play a role in shaping response policies. These policies in turn create the potential for long term, stable peace after episodes of political victimization. Bouris finds weighty problems with this dichotomous conception of actors in a conflict, which pervades much of contemporary peacebuilding scholarship. She instead argues that victims, much like the conflicts themselves, are complex. limits on the response from the international community, the book advocates for greater and more effective responses to conflict. Read Less