Memory in international diplomacy

This chapter locates memory in international politics: first, it conceptually determines the international sphere as the site for the politics of memory. Secondly, it describes how memory is formed into a diplomatic tool by political actors to achieve foreign-policy goals. With this, the chapter places the origins of a country’s memory beyond its borders and illustrates how a selective memory content emerges first with an eye to the international community. In outlining memory as an elite-manipulated official narrative told to international audiences, ‘diplomacy with memory’ is defined as a foreign-policy strategy for the international projection of particular memory images - such as guilt, innocence, or victimhood - vis-à-vis the past. Diplomacy with memory is thus introduced in this chapter as a strategic calculation undertaken by diplomatic elites and geared towards international goals.