It's a Family Affair: Germany as a Responsible Actor in Popular Culture Discourse

Abstract

In 2001, Afghanistan became a threat to Germany, an act of “writing security” that resulted in a strong Bundeswehr involvement in military missions. But to defend itself at the Hindu Kush in such a proactive way seems to be at odds with the noninterventionist history and identity of the Federal Republic. This identity conflict is reflected in a fierce and ongoing discourse on foreign deployments and Germany's identity as a responsible actor in world politics. This article looks into representations of this identity conflict in recent German TV films, where Afghanistan veterans and their families struggle to come to terms with the mission. But fighting in Afghanistan does not necessarily lead to peace in Germany; the veterans’ traumatic experiences in Afghanistan result in frictions and conflicts at home. Only when (and if) the mission is narrated as responsible behavior that brings stability, fights terrorism, and saves brown women from brown men, Germany can reconcile itself with its temporal other and with the current war.

Social media, gender and the mediatization of war: exploring the German armed forces’ visual representation of the Afghanistan operation on Facebook

“…Similarly, the analysis demonstrates the importance of gender constructions in the legitimation of military operations, as many of the visual representations draw on established discursive practices from gender discourse for legitimacy. Aside from a few exceptions (Engelkamp and Offermann 2012;Schoenes 2011), this aspect has been neglected altogether in the study of German foreign and security policy. Given the centrality of gender(ed) constructions for the legitimation of violence in international politics, highlighted by feminist security studies, scholars of German foreign and security policy need to pay much more attention to this aspect.…”

Moving Images: Visual Metaphors of Peace in the Movie Mango Dreams

“…Mango Dreams expresses these dimensions metaphorically through family relations as a discursive site of rift and reunion. 63 We found three different but related conceptualizations of peace. Firstly, peace is imagined as a possibly utopian place of destination but also a contested site of struggle-it is both a state and a process.…”

Comics and the Colombian Peace Process: Neoliberal Discourse and the Risk of Revictimization of Displaced Peasants

“…117–118) argued that popular culture contributes to the reproduction and popularization of official foreign policy discourses and state actions, while at the same time providing a site for contesting official state narratives. It has been shown that artifacts of popular culture shape “society members’ beliefs, attitudes, and emotions” (Bar-Tal, 2013, p. 132), and they may legitimize and justify wars and military interventions by normalizing war crimes or representing them as “inevitable” (Engelkamp & Offermann, 2012). As Weldes (1999, p. 119) states, popular culture may help to “produce consent for foreign policy and state action.” As an example of it, this article shows how comics published by CNMH aim to produce consent for the peace process and restitution of lands to displaced peasants by (re)producing a neoliberal discourse.…”