The Power of the Past: A
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THE POWER OF THE PAST: A H AB E RM AS IAN APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF COLLECTIVE WAR MEMORIES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ILLUSTRATED BY RECENT FRANCO-GERMAN RELATIONS LOTHAR RAST SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON SEPTEMBER 2006 UMI Number: U221959 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U221959 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 To Beatriz, Valentina and Daniel Written declaration Herewith I declare that this work is my own. Lothar Rast 30 September 2006 3 % 6 %7r 1 I o <\ \ Abstract The central question of this thesis is how to conceptualise the impact of collective war memories in international politics. The main theoretical argument developed in the work is that Jurgen Habermas’ Critical Theory, in general, and his two concepts of social learning and political legitimacy, in particular, are useful and hitherto unexplored ways of advancing our knowledge concerning that question. Based on this premise the thesis highlights the importance of political memory groups for the formulation of practical imperatives in politics and develops a theoretical concept of social learning that can be applied to the remembering of past wars. It further argues that societies can learn to remember past wars in different stages and that those stages can be identified in the history of Western Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This is illustrated by the cases of Germany and France in that period. Delving further into the question of how collective war memories may or may not legitimate international politics and foreign policy decisions, the dissertation develops a notion of political legitimacy that is based on Habermas’ theory of communicative action. The discussions in France and Germany concerning both the attempts to form a European Defence Community (EDC) in 1954 and the European Monetary Union (EMU) in 1991-1992 are used in this work to illustrate the application of this notion of legitimacy. The thesis concludes that Habermas’ Critical Theory not only helps to advance our theoretical knowledge of the impact of collective war memories on international politics, but also provides useful insights into possible ways to critically and consciously transform such an impact. 4 Acknowledgements Throughout the years that this work was in the making I accumulated innumerable debts of gratitude, which I am now pleased to acknowledge. I was very fortunate to have worked under the supervision of Professor Christopher Hill, whose continuous support and advice in this large trajectory were of immense help. I am grateful for Professor Hill’s openness to different paths of enquiry, his critical, yet always encouraging and supportive supervision, as well as his belief in this work. I also wish to record my gratitude to Michael Banks, my former supervisor, who, before his health commanded him to retire prematurely, offered invaluable support. My thanks are also due to fellow participants of M. Bank’s research seminar at the LSE: Christian Heine, Benno Teschke and Hayo Krombach have not only been very valuable friends, but also generous critics of this work I am very grateful for the knowledgeable support I received in my research of material on issues of Franco-German relations. I greatly benefited from the professionalism of the staff of the Deutsch-Franzosisches Institut in Ludwigsburg, the German Historical Institute in Paris, the European University Institute in Florence, and the Otto-Suhr- Institute of Political Science in Berlin. Thanks to the generous support from the British Council, the German Academic Exchange Programme (Deutscher Academischer Austauschdienst - DAAD), as well as the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation in Germany I was able to embark on and complete this research project. I am very grateful for the support that I have received from my parents, Babette and Eduard Rast, who provided me with the space to concentrate on this work and, ultimately, finish this thesis at a time when other obligations seemed to make such endeavor look increasingly illusory. Finally, I would like to thank my family, my children Valentina and Daniel, and my wife, Beatriz, for their never failing support and their incredible help. It is through their 5 love, their understanding and sacrifices that this thesis was possible at all. Both children were bom while I was doing this thesis, and I often had to turn down their pleas for joint quality time with their dad. But my greatest gratitude and admiration is for Beatriz, whose strength, love and support were the sole reason why I was able to write and finish this work. It is with all my love, my respect and my gratitude to Beatriz that I dedicate this work to her. 6 List of abbreviations ADMP Association pour Defendre la Memoire du Marechal Petain BDKK Bund Deutscher Kriegsgeschadigter und Kriegshinterbliebener BHE Bund der Heimatlosen und Entrechteten BT Bundestag BVN Bund der Verfolgten des Naziregimes CDU Christlich-Demokratische Union CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy CHG Commission d’Histoire de la Guerre CHGM Comite d’Histoire de la Deuxieme Guerre Mondial CHOLF Commission d’Histoire de l’Occupation et de la Liberation de la France CNR Conseil Nationale de la Resistance CSU Christlich-Soziale Union DDP Deutsche Demokratische Partei DNVP Deutschnationale Volkspartei DP Deutsche Partei DKP Deutsche Kommunistische Partei DMIH Delegation a la Memoire et a la Information Historique DUD Deutscher Union-Dienst DVP Deutsche Volkspartei EC European Communities ECB European Central Bank ECSC European Community for Steel and Coal ECU European Currency Unit EEC European Economic Community EDC European Defence Community EFT A European Free Trade Area EMU European Monetary Union 7 EU European Union FDP Freie Demokratische Partei FN Front National FNCPG Federation Nationale des Combattants Prisonniers de Guerre GDP Gesamtdeutsche Partei GDR German Democratic Republic HIAG Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit IAR International Authority of the Ruhr IR International Relations KPD Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands MRP Mouvement Republicain Populaire NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NKFD Nationalkommittee Freies Deutschland NPD Nationalpartei Deutschlands NSDAP Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei OEEC Organisation of European Economic Cooperation PCF Parti Communiste de la France PDS Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus POW Prisoner of War PS Parti Socialiste RPF Rassemblement pour la France RPR Rassemblement pour la Republique SACEUR Supreme Allied Commander of Europe SEA Single European Act SFIO Section Fran9 aise de la Internationale des Ouvrieres SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands SRP Sozialistische Reichspartei UDC Union Democratique du Centre UDF Union pour la Democratic Fran 9 aise UDSR Union Democratique et Socialiste de la Resistance 8 UFAC Union Fransaise des Associations de Combattants UN United Nations UNESCO United Nations Education and Science Organization VdK Verband der Kriegsgeschadigten, Kriegshinterbliebenen und Sozialrentner Deutschlands VDS Verband deutscher Soldaten VVN Verein der Verfolgten des Naziregimes 9 CONTENTS Title 1 Dedication 2 Written Declaration 3 Abstract 4 Acknowledgements 5 List of abbreviations 7 Contents 10 Introduction 15 A Theoretical foundations _____________________________________25 1 Conceptualising Collective Memory and Collective War Memory 26 1.1 The role of social groups in collective memory: Maurice Halbwachs 27 1.2 The relationship between history and memory 41 1.3 Practices of collective memory 44 1.4 The emotional, cognitive and practical-moral dimensions of collective memory 47 1.5 Political memory groups 52 1.6 The characteristics of collective war memories 54 2 A framework for the study of collective war memories and international politics: Habermas’ Critical Theory 57 2.1 Characteristics of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School 59 2.2. The main features of Habermas’ Critical Theory 61 2.2.1 Habermas’ notion of praxis: work and interaction 62 2.2.2 Rationalisation processes according to Habermas 65 2.2.2.1 Rationalisation processes in lifeworld 67 2.2.22 Rationalisation processes in systems 75 2.3 Habermas’ theory of social evolution and discourse ethics 76 10 2.4 Developing a Habermasian framework for the study of collective war memories 83 B Studying the rise and transformation of national war memories with a Habermasian concept of social learning 86 3 National war memories and the Habermasian rationalisation processes in Western Europe 87 3.1 The rationalisation processes in Western Europe according to Habermas 88 3.1.1 Rationalisation processes in systems (economic sphere, political administration, warfare) 89 3.1.2 Rationalisation processes in lifeworld 93 3.2 The role of collective war memories in the rationalisation 98 processes in Western Europe 3.3 The current crisis of national war memories: on the road