Policing politics: framing the past in post-conflict divided societies

Abstract

Dealing with violent pasts in post-conflict societies is especially problematic in ethnically divided societies where ideas about historical events are inextricably bound up with ideas about identity, community, and nation. In such cases “the past” often becomes a key issue on which to contest long-standing grievances and justify particularistic visions of the future. This article argues that, in conjunction with judicial procedures, post-conflict societies might best foster fragile settlement processes by fencing in or framing historical narratives about the past. This framing of the past involves a repositioning of historical events in relation to the present and involves not simply a rewriting of the historical record but its re-presentation through discursive tropes. While that process is intrinsic to ethnic mobilization, I argue that it can be counterproductive to cultivating peace and consolidating democracy. Alternatively, I argue (following Jacques Rancière) that the recognition of framing processes in regard to dealing with the past is the beginning of “politics” – as characterized by dissensus and debate – which is the opposite of the stultifying tendency to superimpose ethnically inflected received wisdoms. That recognition can give way to alternative frames that speak to broader concerns about peace-building through democratic consolidation.