scholarly journals 1939 versus 1989—A Missed Opportunity to Create a European Lieu de Mémoire?

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline Sierp
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Special Section ◽  
European Level ◽  
Policy Conflict ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West ◽  
Missed Opportunity ◽  
The Eu

This article is part of the special section titled The Genealogies of Memory, guest edited by Ferenc Laczó and Joanna Wawrzyniak This article analyses the wider context of policy conflict concerning public memory of the 1989 events. It uses Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire in trying to explain why 23 August 1939 has been turned into a European Remembrance Day whereas 9 November 1989 has not. By investigating closely the role that various memory actors played during debates at the European level, it advances the idea that the anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact has been more successful in establishing itself within the European remembrance landscape because it has allowed for the promotion of a unifying narrative of the European past. In doing so, the article questions the frequently advanced idea that memory clashes in the EU form around an East–West divide that in some cases overlaps with a Right–Left divide. The analysis digs deep into the complex dynamics lying at the heart of memory contests concerning the end of the Cold War within the EU and provides a more differentiated view of discussions preceding EU decisions on policies of memory.

scholarly journals Learning from the Germans? History and Memory in German and European Discourses of Integration

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Beattie
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
European Values ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West

History and memory appear to be increasingly important to discussions of European values and identity, as exemplified by references to ‘bitter experiences’ and ‘divided pasts’ in the draft EU constitution. The article takes recent suggestions that Europe could learn from German experiences of confronting multiple difficult pasts as its starting point, and considers critically what lessons those German experiences might in fact hold for ‘Europe’. It explores similarities and differences in the two integration contexts and their dominant approaches to, and assumptions about history and public memory. Specifically, it considers debates about the east-west division of the Cold War and about the place of communism and nazism in public memory. Contrary to common assumptions, the article argues that German experiences are not necessarily worth of European emulation.

scholarly journals Nested Peripheralisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena Pfoser
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Special Section ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
The Status ◽  
Border Narratives ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West

This article is part of the special section titled Recursive Easts, Shifting Peripheries, guest edited by Pamela Ballinger. The break-up of the Cold War order, the eastwards expansion of the European Union into former socialist countries and the more recent economic and humanitarian crises have led to the emergence of new symbolic borders and the reconfiguration of spatial hierarchies within Europe. The article shows how metageographical categories of “Europe,” “East,” and “West” and underlying classificatory logics are not only circulated in geopolitical discourses but can be appropriated by ordinary citizens in their everyday life. Using the Russian–Estonian border as a case study, the article examines the recursive negotiations of Europe’s East–West border by people living in the borderland as a response to the geopolitical changes. It highlights three border narratives: the narrative of becoming peripheral/Eastern, the narrative of becoming European, and a narrative contesting the East–West hierarchy by associating the East and one’s own identity with positive things. On both sides of the border, the status as a new periphery does not create unity across the border but rather results in multiple and competing border narratives, in which “Europe” functions as an unstable referent in relation to which one’s position is marked out. This “nested peripheralisation” at Europe’s new margins reflects power relations and uneven local experiences of transformation.

Trust, but Verify

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West

This book uses trust—with its emotional and predictive aspects—to explore international relations in the second half of the Cold War, beginning with the late 1960s. The détente of the 1970s led to the development of some limited trust between the United States and the Soviet Union, which lessened international tensions and enabled advances in areas such as arms control. However, it also created uncertainty in other areas, especially on the part of smaller states that depended on their alliance leaders for protection. The chapters in this volume look at how the “emotional” side of the conflict affected the dynamics of various Cold War relations: between the superpowers, within the two ideological blocs, and inside individual countries on the margins of the East–West confrontation.

Die harte Schule der neuen Gewalt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Rinke
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
East West

This study examines the fundamental new direction in German theological peace ethics since the end of the East–West conflict. It guides the reader through the thought processes and discoveries of leading Catholic and Protestant peace ethicists and, in doing so, through the significant developments in theological peace ethics in Germany amid the tough new realities that have emerged since the end of the Cold War. In addition, the book discusses the normative premises for conduct conducive to peace which German theological peace ethics has devised in order to fulfil its responsibility to the world in the face of today’s new, violent conflicts.

Defying Communism

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
International Human ◽  
Extra Weight ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Hearts And Minds ◽  
East West

This chapter details how the rise of the international human rights movement as a significant force in world affairs cannot be separated from the Cold War context in which it took place. The Cold War magnified the importance of citizen efforts to promote rights and, though many of those involved in the movement during the Cold War era took significant risks and suffered severe consequences, it was the circumstances of the East–West conflict that attracted many of them to the cause in the first place. Rights activists on both sides of the Iron Curtain became aware that calling attention to abuses of rights by their own governments carried extra weight in an era when a global competition was underway for people's hearts and minds.

Scandinavia Within and Without Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 182-200
Author(s):  
Bo Stråth
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
European Integration ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Integration Approach ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Eu

This chapter outlines changing relationships between Scandinavia and Europe. The Scandinavian ‘isolationist’ approach to Europe after the Napoleonic wars shifted to more active integrationist policies in the 1920s, with the arrival of left governments and the acceptance of the League of Nations; a new isolationist trend (‘neutrality’) set in after 1933. Against the backdrop of this long-term pattern, the focus is on shifting Scandinavian attitudes to the project of European integration and on attempts to be both within and outside Europe. Before and after the Danish entry into the EU in 1973, tensions between different approaches and between the countries concerned have been evident. The Cold War was a major factor, and its end reinforced the pro-integration approach. More recently, problems with the euro and the refugee crisis have provoked more ambiguous responses, but less so in Finland than in the Scandinavian countries.

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