Reconciliation is an essential & necessary part of peacebuilding & political & social change, serving as a catalyst for a lot of other movement towards peace, particularly the relationship-building & social cohesion work that underpins peacebuilding. It also seems logical to assume that peace processes & peace agreements can lead to reconciliation, but it is important to be careful not to overly essentialize this fact; the Dayton Accords serve as an illustration of how peace agreements might not necessarily lead to reconciliation & may instead harden people’s positions.

Reconciliation as part of peacebuilding occurs across various temporal dimensions: past, present, & future. This can be defined as acknowledging the past, establishing new norms & relationships & developing a peaceful & inclusive society. While it is tempting to look at these processes as unfolding sequentially, both reconciliation & peacebuilding are non-linear, parallel, & co-dependent. Effectively integrating reconciliation into peacebuilding means taking into account the fact that reconciliation activities can happen at any time during the conflict cycle.