Memory in U.S. transatlantic relations since 9/11

This chapter focuses on two under-studied cases of the use of memory in U.S. transatlantic relations by non-governmental actors since 9/11: the 2003 campaign by Western European intellectuals to use memory to politically “break with” the United States over its invasion of Iraq with a coalition that included a group of Atlanticist European nations; and the use of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Year in 2011 by American conservatives to conduct “shadow memorial diplomacy” in Central and Eastern Europe that articulated an alternative U.S. foreign policy. These cases can help scholars, memory professionals, policymakers and diplomats better understand, anticipate and appreciate the potential and actual interventions into international memory politics by non-state actors.