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.