Memory, Politics and Peace

This chapter offers an overview of the relationship between memory politics and the quality of peace and contributes to evolving debates. First, it examines what ties memory politics and peace together; second, it considers the tensions that arise when hegemonic memory is weaponized to disrupt peace; and third, it explores future possibilities for a plurality of memory and peace in research and practice. The chapter pays special attention to the acknowledgment of narratives and common rituals and expressions to ask the crucial political question of who governs memory and how, particularly in the wake of atrocity. It also acknowledges that memory is inherently shaped by the political regimes that inherit or claim governance in the wake of violence and that diverse regimes and diverse forms of transition can constrain and harness memory in different ways and toward different peacebuilding effects. Following postcolonial and decolonial approaches, the chapter looks toward structural silences in the dominant approach to memory, by highlighting the silences around “implicated subjects” in violence and the need to tackle these for effective peacebuilding to take place.