Reading Stora Carefully: Problems of Historical Memory in Algerian-French Relations in the Early 2020s

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of the colonial past in Algerian-French relations. In the early 2020s, it gained particular urgency for three reasons. Firstly, in the context of the transformation of the global world order and the deep social cleavages that have engulfed both many Eastern and Western societies, issues of historical memory, external and internal decolonization began to come to the fore both in public discussions within individual states and in international relations. Secondly, the coming to power in France of E. Macron marked an attempt at a serious transformation of the country’s foreign policy, strengthening its position in the world as a whole, and in the region of the Middle East and North Africa, in particular. Related to this were the (mostly unsuccessful) initiatives of E. Macron on the Palestinian-Israeli and Libyan settlements, the Lebanese crisis, and the resolution of accumulated contradictions with Algeria. Thirdly, A. Tebboune’s coming to power in Algeria in 2019 also gave impetus to the country’s foreign policy and created the conditions for revising relations with France. In these circumstances, the idea arose of preparing reports by the two sides on the possibilities of overcoming the negative colonial legacy in bilateral relations. The Algerian side did not submit the report, and the French text was prepared by B. Stora by January 2021 and caused wide response. The purpose of this article is to determine, based on the analysis of this text and the materials of the discussions that followed it, the French vision of the problem of reconciliation with Algeria. The article was written using the method of “slow reading” of the source - its main part is a detailed analysis of the report by B. Stor, followed by a review of the discussion he caused. The result of this approach is the identification of not only the widely discussed contradictions in matters of historical memory (both between Algeria and France, and within French society), but also the identification of some non-obvious problems of the French perception of this problem.