An Ideal Type of Interstate Reconciliation

Abstract

Based on the suggested definitional framework, this chapter attempts to build an ideal type for interstate reconciliation processes. What does a reconciled dyad look like? Can we talk about a successful or a failed reconciliation? What indicators can be used to measure the process? Theoretically speaking, an ideal type is a ‘perfect’ framework that would probably never be realized in the real world. However, as Weber argues ‘the ideal type is not found empirically but is used to study the degree to which a concrete empirical case differs from the ideal’ (Bailey 1994: 17). Therefore, the ideal type construction is useful here to identify the crucial determinants that affect reconciliation processes by providing a theoretical lens through which various empirical cases can be observed, compared and hopefully tested. I propose here an ideal type of interstate reconciliation that comprises three dimensions: international (systemic), regional, and domestic levels.