EuroStorie Research Seminar | Maria Mälksoo 30.1.2025

We warmly welcome you to join the upcoming EuroStorie research seminar with Professor Maria Mälksoo (University of Copenhagen)

Research seminar information

Time: 30.01.2025, 13:00 - 14:00 (UTC +2)
Place: Room 247 (2nd floor), Unioninkatu 33 (inner courtyard), you can also join in by Zoom, Link: https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/62235729698?pwd=PXL5h3WUaB0ZXaDyNvfwbKYHuavzlj.1 Passcode: 791038

 

'Deterrence by Other Means: The International Politics of Domestic Memory Laws'

Abstract 

In international security politics, deterrence refers to the ability of an actor to persuade another not to take a specific action because its prospective costs would outweigh the anticipated benefits. Memory-political deterrence signifies the ways in which states seek to dissuade other political actors from taking actions that threaten the collective memory narratives underpinning the ontological security of the deterring actor. Memory laws that regulate the legitimate frames of remembering the past righteous and perpetrators function as devices of deterrence in states’ (inter)national memory politics. In the broader politics of defending a state’s story of the past, memory laws work as explicitly securitizing moves, serving as “warning shot”-deterrence. They can thereby be part and parcel of hybrid engagement strategies of one’s domestic and foreign opponents, just as “memory wars” can demarcate the antecedent phase of a kinetic conflict, as Russia’s current war in Ukraine amply exemplifies. Together with wider memory-political rhetoric and state’s legislative action at courts, memory laws as devices of deterrence can be used to justify, burden, or prevent political moves, serving various instrumental goals in political mobilization. Memory-political deterrence by legal means is illustrative of the ritual logic of action underpinning deterrence practices in state ontological security-seeking.

Maria Mälksoo is Professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen and an Associate Editor of the Review of International Studies. She is currently leading the European Research Council’s Consolidator Grant project RITUAL DETERRENCE and has recently concluded the Volkswagen Foundation-supported MEMOCRACY consortium project. Prof. Mälksoo is the author of The Politics of Becoming European: A Study of Polish and Baltic Post-Cold War Security Imaginaries (Routledge, 2010), a co-author of Remembering Katyn (Polity, 2012), an editor of the JIRD Special Issue “Uses of ‘the East’ in International Studies: provincializing IR from Central and Eastern Europe” (2022) and the Handbook on the Politics of Memory (Edward Elgar, 2023). Her articles are available here.

About this seminar series
The Spring 2025 Research Seminar Series by the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives at the University of Helsinki explores the concept of "the Other" in relation to Europe, examining the historical, cultural, economic, and political dynamics that have shaped European identity and its relationship with those perceived as outsiders. Delving into the notion of "Europe and its Others," the speakers include scholars, activists, and policymakers discussing how Europe has defined itself through contrasts with non-European cultures and ideologies as well as the "Others" within Europe.
 
The invited speakers in the series will explore how non-European regions have often reacted critically to Europe’s self-understanding as a bastion of democracy, rule of law and human rights. Through colonial legacies, economic inequalities, and political tensions, many regions have challenged Europe’s moral authority, bringing into question its universal claims of fairness and governance. The Research Seminar Series aims to challenge existing narratives, fostering dialogue on inclusion, exclusion, and the evolving understanding of belonging in a globalized world.