Memory Building in Geopolitics

Places and landscape are terms that belong to the geographer’s toolbox along with map and scale. This article will show how discussing memory is also a matter of geography and geopolitics. In geopolitics, actors which are contesting a territory use conflicting representations and look to the past for an opportunity to legitimize their control over the disputed territory. On one side, this legitimacy invokes the memory of tragic events. On the other, positive elements, such as individual and collective victories and achievements that are routinely remembered in celebrations, are identified in public space by specific monuments or urban decorations. This mode of narration is the theme of critical geopolitics. The article that follows highlights how in "practical" geopolitics globalization establishes new connections and especially new descriptions of the world.