Exploring the link between historical memory and foreign policy: an introduction

This article introduces the special issue ‘Exploring the Link between Historical Memory and Foreign Policy’. It sets the scene for the individual case studies by illustrating how memory and foreign policy are linked in a complex and reciprocal way. Several mechanisms of (ab)using historical memory in foreign policy discourses are identified, including the application of historical analogies, the construction of historical narratives, the creation of memory sites, the marginalisation and forgetting of the past and the securitisation of historical memory. The contributions to the special issue are introduced according to this conceptual frame. The article highlights how these mechanisms are deployed in different national and political contexts, as well as how a state’s politics of memory influences its foreign policy and relations with other states.