Institutionalizing Historical Memory, National Identity and Diversity Management in Iraq after 2003

Abstract

Abstract                      

   There is a big difference when we study memory from the perspective of the nature of its content, and between studying it from the perspective of how that content is employed for specific purposes and interests and according to specific methods. That is, when memory becomes a target towards which the authority directs its attention in order to derive from it the justifications for its existence and the reasons for its continuity, by presenting a discourse of memory to the group based in essence on the duality of intentionality and selectivity, that is, the transmission of certain events from the past in exchange for the absence of others according to hidden or declared intentions in order to establish an official and then crystallize an identity that is consistent with its interests. The authority is keen to possess and embody the founding myths as the basic element in building its collective identity. Here, historical memory becomes an important tool in the hands of the political elite to strengthen its control and legitimacy by using memory, exploiting it, and employing it ideologically and politically. Scholars identify times of political crisis as times when memory is active, as the exploitation of memory and its biased, politically and ideologically employed use flourishes strongly, as if the political crisis and the use of memory proceed along two intertwined and conflicting lines, each feeding the other with reasons for power. The authorities often call for the formation of an official memory that embodies the group’s past, through various means, including projects to rewrite the nation’s history, in order to build a common identity based on the revival of a memory selected in a studied and systematic manner, which is an official national memory.