CONCLUSION

(84) We have in this article discussed various dimensions of memory and history and their possible uses and abuses in military pedagogies. To the extent that history in western military academies is studied to provide “prescriptions” for present (and possible future) battles, we argue that this is not only a very narrow conception of history, it is indeed an abuse of history. If this is all history amounts to, we lose sight of the possibilities. In addition, as we have seen, history understood in this way does not really work. It does not serve the purpose it is intended to do. The lessons to be drawn from history might be quite different ones from those that are usually drawn, as we hope to have shown.

(85) So what could history amount to in military academies? We think that students can be taught a quite different sense of history, its nature, scope, and relation to memory. At a minimum, the teachers of history in military academies should be aware of the dimensions that we have touched upon. And of course there might be other dimensions; we do not assume that our analysis is exhaustive.

(86) The concept of the duty of memory may be a good place to start for military personnel participating in, for example, peace-keeping international operations. All people have a collective memory and it would be a mistake to neglect it. After all, peace-keeping forces need to understand their surroundings, and a vital part of that is made up by the history of the region or country and of people’s collective memories, whether wounded or not. But this requires that history be taught in a different way in military academies. While an academy may not be able to teach soldiers precisely what a given group’s collective memories are, it can teach the soldiers the significance of such memories and the emotional power of commemorations.

(87) History and memory are not the same, although they overlap in significant ways. The academic subject of history is much vaster than collective or individual memory, and commands an array of scientific principles and normative considerations. History aims at truth, memory aims at faithfulness to the past. It is important to historians that Voltaire, referred to in the introduction, should not be right in his views about history. History, he said, teaches that which meets the conditions of memory. We have argued that it is vital for history (and for all actors on the international military scene) that history remains independent of and vaster than memory. History is needed as a corrective to and an expansion of memory and as a means of knowing what can be safely forgotten. On the other hand, teachers of history at military academies should pay some heed to Richard Evans’ (2004) views, whether they agree or not. Teachers of history may not be chroniclers of history, but they certainly are presenters. Are they, or should they also be, moral judges of history?

(88) We know that collective memories make up an important part of a group’s identity; they give people a sense of who they are, what heritage their ancestors left them, and perhaps a feeling of speaking for ancestors who were somehow wronged. Hence the duty of memory and the variety of commemorations we see around the world. But sometimes, we have argued, forgetting is just as important. This is a highly complex problem because it goes against what we do know about the importance of history for identity, and also against the duty of memory and the faithfulness to the past. However, sometimes a collective amnesia is necessary if wounded memories are to heal. This does not mean that people should erase all traces of their past and so completely forget it (should that be possible), but it does imply a kind of common agreement not to recall. It could also involve a possibility to revive other portions of the past; portions that have become inaccessible because the focus has been elsewhere. Quite possibly (academic) historians could have a contribution to make in such cases. We suggest that memory and forgetting and their apparently paradoxical relations are important subjects for history in military academies. And history as an academic discipline may make yet a contribution: it may indicate the moment of deserved forgetting. And of course, as we have said before, history may expand, complete, refute or correct both individual and collective memory.

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