The United States of Amnesia
US foreign policy and the recurrence of innocence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12240688 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Simon Philpott (Newcastle University, corresponding author), David Mutimer (0000-0002-3187-7695, York University) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 301-317 |
| Publication date | 2009-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cambridge Review of International Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0955-7571 • E-ISSN: 1474-449X |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09557570902882109 |
| OpenAlex | W2008050092 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 22 |
This article interrogates the ways in which the United States ‘forgets’ the consequences and effects of its foreign policy in the making of its identity. In particular, the article argues that such forgetting enables the United States government to frame its interventions in world affairs as innocent and morally driven. Literature on collective memory and the forgetting that enables the production of such memory informs one element of the argument. Three contemporary films from the amnesia genre are analysed to provide insights into the kind of American identity forged in the acts of remembering and forgetting, illustrating the argument that remembering and forgetting are complex, voluntary and at times mendacious processes. The article concludes with the observation that the processes of forgetting past action when framing the context of new interventions make the United States a dangerous force in global affairs
Amnesia · Argument (complex analysis · Cognitive psychology · Context (archaeology · Foreign policy · Forgetting · Framing (construction · Innocence · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender, Security, and Conflict · History · Law · Medicine · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Psychology · Turkey's Politics and Society
The contours of American history.
Wounds of Memory
Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy
Memory and Methodology
Globalization and American Popular Culture
Memory and popular film
Trauma and the Memory of Politics
Cultures of United States Imperialism (review)
Collective memory
US foreign policy, public memory, and autism
War Hurts
War, Cinema, and Moral Anxiety
Forget September 11
Echoes of Combat
Writing security
Seven types of forgetting
Memory and modernity - popular culture in Latin America
Inscribing the American Body Politic
| Citations per year | 0.15 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2022 (10) |
| Highly cited | No |