Aline Sierp awarded NWO SSH XS grant
Aline Sierp received €50,000 in the NWO SSH XS funding scheme for the project ‘When the Past Determines the Future: The Role of Memory in Foreign Policy Decisions’. In the project, Aline will explore how political decisions are shaped by history.
Political actors often resort to history to make sense of the present. Yet little is known about how the interpretation of the past shapes actors’ perceptions of current events and finally frames contemporary political decisions. My project will study how actors in the European Parliament and the Council used contested memories of war and conflict during the Ukraine crisis. By analysing the triangular interplay between the interpretation of past events, political mobilization and legitimacy in decision making, it studies the cultural heritage of war and conflict as enabler or constrainer of foreign policy choices.
Aline Sierp is Associate Professor in European History and Memory Studies.