This book provides a much-needed gendered reading to the increasingly important practice of political apology. Engaging in depth with two cases of interstate apologies for conflict-related sexual violence - Japan's apologies for the South Korean 'comfort women' and US apologies for the Abu Ghraib scandal - the author argues that political apologies are particularly 'excitable' or uncontrollable forms of speech which are composed of and rearticulate historically-constituted gender norms.