U.S. Foreign Policy and the Politics of Apology
International Studies Intensives Series

Acts of contrition and transitional justice?admission of wrong, apology, and reparations?have become fashionable in the discourse of international affairs. Using a case-study approach that inspires student discussion of concrete examples, this text addresses important questions about the politics of apology in relation to some of the most controversial cases of US foreign policy over the past fifty years: Vietnam, Nicaragua, and the most recent war in Iraq. Loramy Gerstbauer offers an original, transdisciplinary, and accessible argument for the practical value of contrition, forgiveness, and reconciliation in international relations while examining why the United States has been a less than contrite nation and offering a prescription for how to change this state of affairs.

1. Apology and Contrition in International Relations

2. United States Relations with Enemy Nations – Setting a Context

3. The United States and War in Vietnam

4. Counter-Revolution in Nicaragua

5. The 2003 Iraq Invasion and the War on Terror

6. How and Why Contrition Matters

Appendix: U.S.–Enemy State Relations Since 1950

Loramy Gerstbauer is Associate Professor of Political Science and Peace Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College.