Perceptions of the past play a vital role in shaping the contemporary world. Memory, Trauma and World Politics brings together leading scholars from across the social sciences to investigate the varied and complex ways in which social memories of traumatic events, including war, genocide and political oppression, inform and construct individual and collective identities. Drawing on diverse theoretical perspectives, they analyse issues including the possibilities for post-conflict reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, Taiwan, and the former Yugoslavia, the function of memory and forgetting in the evolution of the modern state, the relationship between trauma and ressentiment, the role of the Holocaust in shaping both German and Israeli political culture, of apartheid in current South African politics, and of 9/11 in the new world order. Theoretically innovative and thematically wide-ranging, Memory, Trauma and World Politics addresses some of the most pressing issues facing analysts of world politics today.