‘Memory must be defended’: Beyond the politics of mnemonical security

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

This article supplements and extends the ontological security theory in International Relations (IR) by conceptualizing the notion of mnemonical security. It engages critically the securitization of memory as a means of making certain historical remembrances secure by delegitimizing or outright criminalizing others. The securitization of historical memory by means of law tends to reproduce a sense of insecurity among the contesters of the ‘memory’ in question. To move beyond the politics of mnemonical security, two lines of action are outlined: (i) the ‘desecuritization’ of social remembrance in order to allow for its repoliticization, and (ii) the rethinking of the self–other relations in mnemonic conflicts. A radically democratic, agonistic politics of memory is called for that would avoid the knee-jerk reactive treatment of identity, memory and history as problems of security. Rather than trying to secure the unsecurable, a genuinely agonistic mnemonic pluralism would enable different interpretations of the past to be questioned, in place of pre-defining national or regional positions on legitimate remembrance in ontological security terms.
Original languageEnglish
JournalSecurity Dialogue
Volume46
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)221-237
Number of pages16
ISSN0967-0106
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

    Research areas

  • Faculty of Social Sciences - agonistic memory politics, Copenhagen School, desecuritization, identity, mnemonical security, ontological security

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