Nation Building and the Perpetration of Genocide: Memory, National Security, and the Cold War

This research project grapples with one of the crucial problems of the modern world and Inter­national Relations: genocide. By examining specifically how the memory of the Holocaust and the Arme­nian Genocide was leve­raged for national security, politics and gover­nance, this project will contribute to over­looked links bet­ween the memory of past crimes and nation-building in the age of the Cold War. With an eye towards the ‘diplomacy of genocide’ this project seeks to explore such links in the under­studied context of memory, politics and governance: how have Cold War fears and related East-West pola­rization, and thus national security concerns, shaped perpe­trator nation-states to deny or acknow­ledge their past crimes?

Project director:
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Between Geopolitics and Identity Struggle: Why Israel Took Sides with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict | 2023

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2023): Between Geopolitics and Identity Struggle: Why Israel Took Sides with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, PRIF Report 1/2023, Frankfurt/M, DOI: 10.48809/prifrep2301.

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2
The “War on Terror” and Public Diplomacy during the Cold War: Israeli–Turkish Relations and the 1980 Military Coup | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): The “War on Terror” and Public Diplomacy during the Cold War: Israeli–Turkish Relations and the 1980 Military Coup, in: Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2021.1997134.

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Review, Fraternal Enemies: Israel and the Gulf Monarchies, Clive Jones and Yoel Guzansky, Diplomacy & Statecraft | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): Review, Fraternal Enemies: Israel and the Gulf Monarchies, Clive Jones and Yoel Guzansky, Diplomacy & Statecraft, 1.5.2021.

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Review, Israeli Foreign Policy: A People Shall Not Dwell Alone, Uri Bialer, Diplomacy & Statecraft | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): Review, Israeli Foreign Policy: A People Shall Not Dwell Alone, Uri Bialer, Diplomacy & Statecraft, 1.5.2021.

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Why Won't Israel Recognize the Armenian Genocide? It's Not Just About Turkey | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): Why Won't Israel Recognize the Armenian Genocide? It's Not Just About Turkey, Haaretz, 21.4.2021.

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Carter's Holocaust Commission Should Inspire Biden on Armenian Genocide | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): Carter's Holocaust Commission Should Inspire Biden on Armenian Genocide, Newsweek, 20.4.2021.

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Coalition Politics and Parliamentary Failure: The Armenian Genocide Bill in Israel’s Political Arena | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): Coalition Politics and Parliamentary Failure: The Armenian Genocide Bill in Israel’s Political Arena, in: B. Der Matossian (ed.), Denial of Genocides in the 21st Century, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, (im Erscheinen).

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Armenian Genocide: US Recognition of Turkey’s Killing of 1.5 Million Was Tangled up In Decades of Geopolitics | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): Armenian Genocide: US Recognition of Turkey’s Killing of 1.5 Million Was Tangled up In Decades of Geopolitics, The Conversation, 6.3.2021.

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Erdogan’s Take on the Holocaust Is Cynical, Selective and Self-Serving | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): Erdogan’s Take on the Holocaust Is Cynical, Selective and Self-Serving, Haaretz, 28.1.2021.

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At the Age of the Pandemic: The Global Memory of the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide at a Crossroads | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): At the Age of the Pandemic: The Global Memory of the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide at a Crossroads, PRIF Blog, 12.1.2021.

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ארדואן מגייס את השואה כדי "להקפיץ" את האירופאים ונכשל | 2021

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2021): ארדואן מגייס את השואה כדי "להקפיץ" את האירופאים ונכשל, זמן תל אביב, 2.1.2021.

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Erdogan’s Comparison of Islamophobia, Antisemitism Doesn't Work | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): Erdogan’s Comparison of Islamophobia, Antisemitism Doesn't Work, Jerusalem Post, 17.12.2020.

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How Do We Remember the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust? | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): How Do We Remember the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust? A Global View of an Integrated Memory of Perpetrators, Victims and Third–Party Countries, PRIF Report 6/2020, Frankfurt/M.

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14
Disunited by Genocide: How Armenia’s Relations with Israel Have Come to a Dead End | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): Disunited by Genocide: How Armenia’s Relations with Israel Have Come to a Dead End, Haaretz, 29.10.2020.

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'מדיניות החוץ של טורקיה ושימוש מופרז במושג 'לוחמה בטרור | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): 'מדיניות החוץ של טורקיה ושימוש מופרז במושג 'לוחמה בטרור, זמן ישראל, 15.10.2020.

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‘Counter-Terrorism’ in Turkey’s Foreign Policy: Old Wine in a New Bottle? | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): ‘Counter-Terrorism’ in Turkey’s Foreign Policy: Old Wine in a New Bottle?, Jerusalem Post, 3.10.2020.

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Restorative Justice and the Diplomacy of Closure | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): Restorative Justice and the Diplomacy of Closure. The Israeli Policy on the Armenian Genocide and the Geopolitics of Memory (1980s-2010s), in: C. d. Gamboa/B. van Roermund (eds), Just Memories. Remembrance and Restoration in the Aftermath of Political Violence, Cambridge UK: Intersentia Press, 313-336, https://intersentia.com/en/just-memories.html.

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Long-Distance Israeli Nationalism and ‘Crime Minister’ Netanyahu | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): Long-Distance Israeli Nationalism and ‘Crime Minister’ Netanyahu, Jerusalem Post, 10.9.2020.

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?הפזורה‘ הישראלית: טרנד חולף או כאן כדי להשאר' | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): ?הפזורה‘ הישראלית: טרנד חולף או כאן כדי להשאר', זמן תל אביב, 28.8.2020.

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Israeli Archives Censorship Regulations and Oral History | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): Israeli Archives Censorship Regulations and Oral History, Jerusalem Post, 22.8.2020.

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Armenian Genocide: Looking Back at the 40 Years It Took for Congress to Acknowledge It | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): Armenian Genocide: Looking Back at the 40 Years It Took for Congress to Acknowledge It, The National Interest, 9.3.2020.

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Recognition of the Armenian Genocide after its Centenary: A Comparative Analysis of Changing Parliamentary Positions | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): Recognition of the Armenian Genocide after its Centenary: A Comparative Analysis of Changing Parliamentary Positions, in: Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2019.1737911.

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Author Interview: Eldad Ben Aharon on the Use of Oral History in the Study of International Relations | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): Author Interview: Eldad Ben Aharon on the Use of Oral History in the Study of International Relations, the American Oral History Association, 14.2.2020.

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Doing Oral History with the Israeli Elite and the Question of Methodology in International Relations Research | 2020

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2020): Doing Oral History with the Israeli Elite and the Question of Methodology in International Relations Research, in: The Oral History Review, 47:1, 1–23, DOI: 10.1080/00940798.2019.1702467.

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Israel's Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide | 2019

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2019): Israel's Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide, 1.12.2019.

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הקונגרס האמריקאי הכיר סוף סוף ברצח העם הארמני. עכשיו תור ישראל | 2019

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2019): הקונגרס האמריקאי הכיר סוף סוף ברצח העם הארמני. עכשיו תור ישראל, שיחה מקומית, 16.11.2019.

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Turkey and the "so-called" Armenian Genocide | 2019

Stout, Sean (2019): Turkey and the "so-called" Armenian Genocide. The politics of denial in European and domestic affairs, PRIF BLOG, 24.9.2019.

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הכרה ברצח העם הארמני היא הכרה באוניברסליות של השואה | 2019

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2019): הכרה ברצח העם הארמני היא הכרה באוניברסליות של השואה, שיחה מקומית, 1.5.2019.

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Israel's Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide | 2019

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2019): Israel's Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide. (Hebrew), in: Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, 1–15, www.mitvim.org.il/(...).

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Review, Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence Against the Armenians, 1789-2009, Fatma Müge Göçek | 2018

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2018): Review, Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence Against the Armenians, 1789-2009, Fatma Müge Göçek, in: Journal of Social History, 51:3, 656-659, https://academic-oup-com.ezproxy01.rhul.ac.uk/jsh/article/51/3/656/2924802.

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Superpower by Invitation | 2018

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2018): Superpower by Invitation. Late Cold War diplomacy and leveraging Armenian terrorism as a means to rapprochement in Israeli-Turkish relations (1980–1987), in: Cold War History, 19:2, 275–293, DOI: 10.1080/14682745.2018.1483342.

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Review, Recovering Armenia: The Limits of Belonging in Post-Genocide Turkey, Lerna Ekmekçioğlu | 2017

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2017): Review, Recovering Armenia: The Limits of Belonging in Post-Genocide Turkey, Lerna Ekmekçioğlu, in: Patterns of Prejudice, 51:2, 211-213, https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy01.rhul.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1080/0031322X.2017.1287464.

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Between Ankara and Jerusalem | 2017

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2017): Between Ankara and Jerusalem. The Armenian Genocide as a Zero-Sum Game in Israel's Foreign Policy (1980’s -2010’s), in: Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 20:5, 459–476, DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2018.1385932.

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Review, They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide, Ronald Grigor Suny | 2016

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2016): Review, They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide, Ronald Grigor Suny, in: H-Soz-Kult, 1-3, https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-24026.

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Review, Turkey and the Armenian Ghost: On the Trail of the Genocide, Laura Marchand & Guillaume Perrier | 2016

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2016): Review, Turkey and the Armenian Ghost: On the Trail of the Genocide, Laura Marchand & Guillaume Perrier, in: Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History, 22:4, https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy01.rhul.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1080/17504902.2016.1224646.

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A Unique Denial: Israel's Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide | 2015

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2015): A Unique Denial: Israel's Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide, in: British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 42:4, 638–654, DOI: 10.1080/13530194.2015.1043514.

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Interview with Eldad Ben Aharon about MA programme Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the University of Amsterdam | 2013

Ben Aharon, Eldad (2013): Interview with Eldad Ben Aharon about MA programme Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the University of Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, 28.12.2013.

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