The instrumentalisation of sites of memory in international
relations can be traced back to the city-states of Ancient Greece,
but as the communicative memory of the two world wars has
progressively faded, ‘memorial diplomacy’ has flourished,
marking “the era of commemoration” for French historians, or
“the memory boom” for their British-American counterparts.
‘Liberation narratives’, such as Ronald Reagan’s landmark
speech at Omaha Beach in June 1984 to mark the 40th
anniversary of the Normandy Landings, or Barack Obama’s
sequel on the 70th anniversary of D-Day, are but one aspect of
this phenomenon. ‘Birth of the nation’ moments like ANZAC
Day, which commemorates the Battle of Gallipoli (1915),
possess a transnational dimension, not least in mediating
relations between Australia, New Zealand, their long-term
Commonwealth allies and erstwhile adversaries in the shared
memory of the First World War Centenary. So too do the politics
of apology and restitution, which materialize the heavy
‘memorial burden’ (Amritsar, Easter Rising) borne by former
imperial powers and colonies alike in their postcolonial relations.
This course examines how a century of commemoration of war
and peace has reshaped the idioms of global diplomacy.
