Accumulation by Reconciliation: The United States, South Africa, and Peacemaking by Vanquished Settlers as Liberal International Order

In historicising ‘transitional justice’ and its place within structures of international order, I argue that intra-settler violence in North America and Southern Africa are vital, but unexplored, points of lineage. Focusing on the American Civil War and Second Boer War, I argue that distinct patterns of ‘accumulation by reconciliation’ emerged, as white factions made peace through new ideological commitments premised on further marginalisation/exploitation of those not considered ‘white.’ ‘Accumulation by reconciliation’ found articulate champions via American President Woodrow Wilson and South African Prime Minster Jan Smuts, leading architects of the League of Nations system and modern liberal internationalism generally. Given that transitional justice projects largely presume an order of liberal internationalism, we must consider how the forging of these presumption was influenced by the white-supremacist settler contexts of Wilson and Smuts. This genealogy thus enables a deeper conceptualisation of the limits of transitional justice.