Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

Contesting the Past: Shaping Official Narratives in Turkey and Japan

Open to the Public

Why do some states seek to come to terms with their own past crimes, while others deny wrongdoing for decades? Drawing on in-depth research into Turkey's narrative of the Armenian genocide and Japan's narrative of the Nanjing massacre, this seminar will demonstrate that while international and structural factors can act as catalysts for change in states' narratives of past atrocities, domestic actors and processes largely determine the content of such change.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Date: Time: - Location: Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369
Armenia's Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian, left, and Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu sign documents during the signing ceremony of a peace accord between Turkey and Armenia in Zurich, Switzerland, Oct. 10, 2009.

About

Why do some states seek to come to terms with their own past crimes, while others deny wrongdoing for decades? Despite dramatic increases in truth-telling, truth-seeking, and state apologies for historic wrongs, there remains a great deal of variation in how states deal with their own dark pasts. This seminar investigates this variation, discussing the sources of change and continuity in states' narratives of past atrocities. This seminar will highlight the finding that, while international and structural factors can act as catalysts for change in official narratives, domestic actors and processes largely determine the content of changes in official narratives of dark pasts. This argument offers an integrating framework that captures how political factors at the domestic and international levels influence states' narratives and contrasts with work that emphasizes factors within either the international or the domestic sphere or that focuses on single case studies. This argument is based on in-depth research into the trajectories over the past several decades of Turkey's narrative of the 1915–1917 Armenian genocide and Japan's narrative of the 1937–1938 Nanjing massacre.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.