To remember like a diplomat

Resumé

To remember like a diplomat

This article investigates how a tight-knit group of multilateral economic diplomats – simply called the Europeans – retell their story of the shock of the Norwegian non-joining of the European Community (EC) in September 1972. Drawing on concepts from Paul Ricoeur and Iver B. Neumann, combining oral and archive-based history, this article argues that the Europeans have reconciled the ingrained heroic story of ‘the diplomat’ with the traumatic experience of the Norwegian ‘no’ by narrating themselves as martyrs metaphorically sacrificing themselves for a just cause. Rather than fundamentally changing their story – for example portraying themselves as failures – they elevate their cause to something unassailably virtuous: Peace in Europe.