29 August 2018
13:15 Europe/Oslo
Event
Theory seminar: The Crisis of Liberal Memory
Vibeke Schou Tjalve presents the introduction chapter to a new book as part of the project “World of the Right”.
Language: English
NUPI
Seminar
The book is a part of the internasjonal research project ‘World of the Right’ that has its base at DIIS in Denmark. In addition to the presentation, the discussion will be based upon the following abstract circulated beforehand to registered attendees:
“Does the current – and by all signs growing – return of nation, tribe and strongman-ship in the language and logics of Western foreign policy debate, signify a new ‘geopolitical amnesia’: a ‘forgetting’ of the once sobering experiences of total war, holocaust and nuclear catastrophe? In this introductory essay, I suggest that the recent return of geopolitical postures across the West, stem not only from a rise of nationalist, populist or anti-liberal movements on the Right, but from a crisis of liberal memory. Arguably, the current insurgence against Liberal World Order reflects a profound re-negotiation of the lessons to be learned from the twentieth century. A forgetting of the roots behind, and reasons for, those flaws, frailties and compromises for which that order is now faulted. And a re-infatuation with those destructive passions and periods which that order was originally intended to replace or at the very least suppress.
This chapter argues how and why exploring the crisis of Liberal World Order through the lens of current renegotiations of its twentieth century past, will help us unpack crucial paradoxes in the new geopolitics. Its rhetoric of populist revolt, yet fetishization of authority and strong-men. Its insistence on traditionalism and ‘return’, yet appropriation of the technologies of the future. And, above all, its nostalgia for or hyper-remembrance of the past, yet radical sense of oblivion towards historical tragedies and traumas.”
Vibeke Schou Tjalve is an expert on the ideological and religious roots of American politics, security and military culture. She is particularly interested in the dynamics between ideas, rhetoric and foreign policy. Dr. Tjalve runs the research project World of the Right (WoR) and is currently doing research on the ideological roots of the new American right, its narrative of Western decline and its strategies of political and military 're-vitalization'. Dr. Tjalve is the author of “Realist Strategies of Republican Peace” (Palgrave, 2008) and has published in International Security, Security Dialogue, International Relations, Telos and Intelligence and National Security. From 2012-2015 she was head of the research unit International Security at DIIS.
Chair at this theory seminar is Research Fellow Minda Holm, who is a PhD fellow in the research project, as well as project leader for a parallell 3-year research project funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence.
Speaker
Vibeke Schou Tjalve
Senior Research Fellow, DIIS
Related projects
Research Project
2018 - 2022 (Completed)
World of the Right: Alternative visions of global order (WoR)
The project looks deeper into the conservative New Right in Russia, the US, and Europe, examining in particular the alternative visions of Western civilisational order that these movements harbour, an...
29 August 2018
13:15 Europe/Oslo
Language: English
NUPI
Seminar