Description
This study seeks to examine the role of collective memories in the foreign policy discourse of Israel by looking at its relationship with Germany through the examination of critical events. It seeks to understand the systematic ability of states to remember, internalize and reflect on traumatic memories while dealing with issues of national interest. It does so by applying the Diplomacy with memory model of Kathrin Bachleitner to emphasize the importance of memory in international relations in general and its role in making foreign policy in particular. The memory is taken as a collective historical imagination, which is mobilized to serve the present, thus, forming hegemonic narratives of memories in any given temporality. Critical junctures have the potential to revise the hegemonic memory paradigms of any (national)community. In pursuance of these goals, this study has a threefold aim. Theoretically, it uses traumatic memory scholarship in ascertaining that the state in international relations seeks much more than just physical security but nothing at the expense of physical security. Methodologically, this study aims to develop a model of remembering diplomatic behaviors by borrowing from Kathrin Bachleitner. Empirically, this study seeks to look at Israel’s foreign policy with the Federal Republic of Germany (FDR) over the years, examining the holocaust memory narratives by focusing on critical events.
