Military History and Collective Identity

Abstract

AbstractEach country has a national story that forges a sense of identity and – as Patrick Finney put it – while language, religion, culture, and traditions are key elements, war has traditionally been at the core of identity construction, shaping the collective national sentiment and the sense of Self (Finney, Remembering the Road to World War Two: International history, national identity, collective memory. Routledge, 2011).Recently, scholars have increasingly become interested in the way in which war and war experiences frame collective identities. From this perspective war and identity are closely intertwined, and this interactive process can explain not only how identities are created but how they may produce various typologies of warfare practices and states’ conduct. Such a conceptual paradigm provides new windows to a study of past wars but also prepares the ground for a better understating of current or future conflicts.Which role does military history play in the collective identity of nations and other collectives, how does war memory shape the architecture of identity construction, and how does identity-memory dynamics frame states’ strategic thinking? These are the central questions of this text. While the possible answers to such questions depend on multiple variables, there is a broad scholarly consensus that this is an area of research that needs to be further explored, especially in the light of new advancements in the field of cultural and social studies. Wars are fought on two main fronts: on the battlefield and in people’s minds where it maintains an enduring influence that is preserved over generations. The way people remember and memorialize the experiences of war allows us to gain a more comprehensive view on the set of practices, norms, values, and emotions that shape collective identities and determine typologies of state behavior in military and security affairs.