From Silencing to Commemorating: Conceptualizing and Measuring Official Narratives of Dark Pasts

International relations scholars have begun to study historical memories and narratives, both as independent variables that shape states’ foreign policies and bilateral relations, and in the context of the emergence and impact of human rights norms. Given the myriad ways in which historical narratives affect interstate relations and the likelihood of conflict, this is an important and long-overdue development. A byproduct of this research, however, has been a proliferation of concepts, including reconciliation, contrition, remembrance, regret, reparations, restitution, forgiveness, Vergangenheitsbewältigung, historical consciousness, and master narrative. While this conceptual proliferation reflects the range of questions asked by different scholars, it hinders comparison across cases and contributes to conceptual confusion. To organize this conceptual terrain, this paper proposes the concept of official narrative – which is defined as a state’s characterization of an historical event, including its nature and scope, and the state’s characterization of its own involvement in and responsibility for that event – and introduces an eight-step continuum with which to measure official narratives and change therein. The continuum builds on existing scholarship on denial and apology, and captures the most important steps and shifts in states’ narratives in a form that is both usable and nuanced. Its utility is illustrated with applications to several European states’ narratives of past historical events.