ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on parliamentary debates in Germany and Sweden that were held annually from 2001 to 2013 concerning the countries' continued participation in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission. During a German parliamentary debate on the ISAF mission in 2008, a member of the Left Party looks startled. Parliamentary debates were selected as research material because they capture essential features of official meaning-making and are closely intertwined with actual political decisions, such as the prolongation of participation in the Afghanistan mission. Politicians in both countries address the discrepancy between the narrative of soldiers protecting the nation on the one hand and the post-national character of the war on the other. The analysis of parliamentary debates about the war dead shows that the way in which narratives of gender, nation and war influence democratic deliberation is highly dependent on history and cultural context.
