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Introduction: Twenty-first-Century Memories Eric Langenbacher and Yossi Shain Collective memories have long influenced domestic politics and especially international affairs—a fact most recently exemplified by the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. The events and the memories resulting from them became powerful motivating forces for Americans almost overnight. At home, an infrastructure of commemoration quickly arose—in films like United  (2006); memorials including one unveiled at the Pentagon in September 2008 and the Tribute World Trade Center Visitor Center opened in 2006; and even in political campaign discourse, as at the 2008 Republican National Convention.1 Yet, as with other collective memories worldwide, there is no consensus as to the overall meaning and lessons of September 11 over time. Instead, the continued vehemence of discussions about 9/11 reveals still-unresolved struggles over the construction, content, and power of the memory. What degree of prominence should this memory have in American political culture? What historical narratives are offered as explanations? Most importantly, what values and policy implications—both domestically and abroad—ought to follow? Understanding the construction and impact of 9/11 is one of the themes that the authors of this collection address.2 Yet as important as 9/11 has become in the United States and abroad, it is only one of many collective memories influencing countries and their international interactions today. Indeed, the last three decades have witnessed a vast and global increase in attention devoted to such concerns by world leaders, international institutions , scholars, and practitioners. These actors have engaged in debates and have initiated policies that reveal the profound influence of collective memory . The international policy impact of collective memory, however, has not received the systematic attention in either the academy or the policy arena that it deserves—despite the fact that it is difficult to find a country or region where memory and related concerns such as working through a traumatic past and bringing perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice have not come to the fore. Examples include post-Soviet republics and their fears of renewed Russian oppression, Russia itself and its efforts to regain past glory, much of the Islamic world and its memory of Western subjugation, South 1 2 Eric Langenbacher and Yossi Shain Africa and its difficult apartheid legacy—along with Algeria, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, South Korea, and many more. Bilateral relations between countries as disparate as Germany and Israel, Turkey and Armenia, Britain and Ireland, and China and Japan all have been greatly influenced by such issues. Clearly, collective memory is empirically important and deserves sustained and in-depth theoretical study. Although the recent proliferation of studies has advanced concepts and theory, the field of collective memory, though related, is still not in the mainstream of political science—especially in comparison with the concept’s prominence in cultural studies, history, and even sociology. Scholars have been slow to recognize the importance of memory in international affairs and have not yet advanced major theoretical works in the area. Increased rigor in theorizing memory’s impact, in developing a conceptual framework, and in selecting appropriate methods are all needed. Nevertheless, the present is an opportune moment to bring the concerns of memory into the field of international relations, in the face of elective affinities with the burgeoning constructivist paradigm in the field, which emphasizes the role of ideas and identities. Moreover, constructivist scholars and others have argued that the traditional, simplified view of international actors (states, elites, governments ) has to add other networks of influence that may not map perfectly onto the old models—transnational ethnic groups, diasporas, refugees, and other migrants. The contributions to this volume also take up this task of furthering the study of collective memory in international affairs both empirically and theoretically by looking at the interactions of states, diasporas, and transnational ethnic groups, and especially at the impact of collective memory on these actor’s identities, values, policy preferences, and behaviors. Thus, this volume has four main aims. First, it is intended as a serious effort to study the impact of post-9/11 collective memories on international affairs and foreign policies. Second, the book aims for a breadth of empirical coverage by analyzing a variety of cases, including Austria, China, Israel, Japan, Poland, and Switzerland. Along with the United States, the contributions emphasize especially the cases of Germany and the Jewish communities —which is appropriate, given the prominence of collective memories in these cases and the importance of...

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