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The political use of victimhood: Spanish collective memory of ETA through the war on terror paradigm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2020

Charlotte Heath-Kelly Open the ORCID record for Charlotte Heath-Kelly [Opens in a new window]  and
Laura Fernández de Mosteyrín
Charlotte Heath-Kelly*
Affiliation:
Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
Laura Fernández de Mosteyrín
Affiliation:
Department of Law and Criminology, Universidad a Distancia de Madrid
*
*Corresponding author. Email: c.heath-kelly@warwick.ac.uk
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Abstract

Victims have become a topic of scholarly debate in conflict studies, especially regarding the impact of their activism on the evolution and termination of violence. Victims of terrorism are now enlisted within counter-terrorism, given their moral authority as spokespeople for counter-narratives and de-escalation. Our research explores how Spanish terrorism victims’ associations have evolved across eras of political violence and how they mediate the translation of international War on Terror discourses into Spanish counter-terrorism. We offer a topography of how the War on Terror has opened a ‘social front’ in Spanish counter-terrorism, with Spanish political elites prominently employing the victims’ associations to this end. Contemporary terrorism discourses are read back onto the memory of ETA, with victims’ associations assisting the equation of ETA with al-Qaeda and ISIS. Collective memory of the defeat of ETA has also contributed the veneer of ‘lessons learned’ to contemporary counter-terrorism measures. Our research explores the fluidity of terrorism-memory and the importation of global terrorism discourses into Spanish politics, relying upon interviews with key stakeholders in victims’ associations, local politics, and the research director of the new Victims of Terrorism Memorial Centre in Vitoria.

Keywords

Counter-terrorismVictimsCounter-narrativesDepoliticisationCollective MemorySpain
Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2020

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60 After the conclusion of our data collection in 2018, very interesting developments have taken place in Spain. Franco has been exhumed from his resting place in the ‘Valley of the Fallen’ and political discussions are beginning about the criminalisation of ‘apologies for Francoism’. Such recent developments are unfortunately beyond our scope: our article only tells the story of Spanish counter-terrorism, victims and memory up to 2018.

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64 Author's interview with Research Director at the Victims of Terrorism Memorial Centre, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2018.

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