Mnemonic Insecurity: The German Struggle with New Trends of Radicalization

Authors

  • Sybille Reinke de Buitrago PolAk Nds & Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg – IFSH

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i20398573v6n1p21

Keywords:

Mnemonic insecurity, Identity, Emotions, Radicalization, Germany

Abstract

The so-called refugee crisis of the last years has presented Germany with a massive inflow of refugees and migrants. The scale has disrupted Germany’s self-narrative as open and tolerant state that has learned from its Nazi past. With local and national institutions not being prepared logistically, with media images portraying a nearly ‘overrun’ country, and with a significant upsurge in anti-migrant sentiments, a state of mnemonic insecurity has developed in Germany. Far-right political movements gathered strength and voter support, and right-wing extremist violence increased. On the other side, many people actively engaged in a ‘welcome culture’. The contribution traces key developments in Germany’s approach to the refugee crisis in the context of radicalization trends. It illustrates the dislocation of Germany’s identity and self-narrative in an emotionalized discourse, and the following acts to defend memory. It closes with current attempts at memory’s re-politicization to something larger than before.

Author Biography

Sybille Reinke de Buitrago, PolAk Nds & Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg – IFSH

Dr. Sybille Reinke de Buitrago holds a PhD from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and a BA/MA from American University in Washington, DC. She manages the research project “VIDEOSTAR – Video-Based Strategies against Radicalization” at PolAk Nds (Academy of Police Sciences and Criminology of Lower Saxony), Germany. She is also fellow at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on International Relations, foreign policy, and security policy, in particular how aspects of identity, perception, emotions, space and discourse affect conflict and cooperation. She teaches International Relations and Political Communication. She is also State Department Alumna. She has published a monograph titled Threat Images in International Relations: American and German Security Policy on International Terrorism, and she is editor of Portraying the Other in International Relations: Cases of Othering, Their Dynamics and the Potential for Transformation (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). She has also published numerous articles, among them in Global Affairs, Asian Politics & Policy, Journal of Terrorism Research, Journal of Strategic Security, and Journal of International Political Theory.

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Published

15-07-2020

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2020): ‘Defending Memory’: Exploring the Relationship Between Mnemonical In/Security and Crisis in Global Politics

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Special Issue

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