‘We must not allow what happened in Bosnia to be repeated in Kosovo’: The Bosnian War as admonitory memory in German-American relations

This paper combines international history with the study of memory to elucidate how the dynamics of the memory of the Bosnian War unfolded during NATO’s Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War. It explores German and American governments’ uses of memories of the Bosnian War to legitimize and endow meaning on the NATO intervention. It also looks at media discourses and especially how the events in Račak influenced how the conflict and its further course were understood. Throughout the period analyzed, the memory of the Bosnian War was simultaneously a transnational and an entangled memory. It was a transnational memory because it was shared by the USA and Germany, partially transcending borders and the political and historical experiences of the involved actors. It was also an entangled memory because the memory of the Bosnian War did not stand on its own but was interlinked with World War II memories and the Holocaust. This entanglement amplified the perceived message for the present. The transnational and entangled memory of the Bosnian War served a legitimizing and an admonitory function in the German and American narratives and was linked to emotions of guilt.