Defending Memory in Global Politics

Building on Maria Mälksoo’s influential 2015 article “Memory Must Be Defended”: Beyond the Politics of Mnemonical Security ( Security Dialogue , 46(3), 221–237), the volume Defending Memory in Global Politics: Mnemonical In/Security and Crisis , edited by Erica Resende, Dovilė Budrytė, and Douglas Becker, examines contemporary politics of memory politicisation and securitization captured in eleven case studies, structured according to actor types (state versus non-state). The book’s primary conceptual proposition is predicated on the concept “mnemonic in/security”. As with the broader concept of ontological security, this term encapsulates the tensions between the imperative to safeguard a collective memory against perceived external and internal threats to create and stabilize collective identities, and the inherent vulnerabilities and marginalizations that accompany the selection of memories to be enshrined in such an effort. In this perspective, conflicts over recognition, or even mnemonic “battles,” are inevitable. Such struggles manifest themselves, for instance, when governments promulgate specific memory narratives that neglect or reinterpret historical wrongdoings against other states. However, they can also occur within political communities. In such cases, political actors—particularly following periods of internal crisis and violence—promote amnesia or, conversely, memorialization of historical events. The purpose of this promotion is to legitimize a political order and its hegemonic forces

Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law