Memory as a Security Policy

Abstract

The intersectionality of nationalism, memory, and securitized identity narrative rendered the politics of memory and the history politics with particular importance. The following chapter tackles the issue of memory and history politics through the lenses of the ontological security theory used as a framework for understanding state policies in the sphere of security perception and behaviors. For the purposes of this chapter, the history politics is understood as a construction of a binding historical memory by organizing history in a particular narrative constructs that help to develop and/or maintain a salient group self-identity. After having delineated the theoretical foundation, the interaction between security and managed historical memory is in its political, institutional, and discursive aspect will be explored. The three interrelated factors important in ontological security behavior—1) discourse frames, 2) institutional arrangement, and 3) policies—will be analyzed in the Polish context.