Contested Memories in Chinese and Japanese Foreign Policy explores the issue of memory and lack of reconciliation in East Asia.

As main East Asian nations have never achieved a common memory of their pasts, in particular, the events of the Second World War and Sino-Japanese War, this book locates the issue of memory within International Relations theory, exploring the theoretical and practical link between the construction of a country's identity and the formation and contestation of its historical memory and foreign policy.

• Provides an innovative theoretical framework
• Draws connections between the role of memory and foreign policy
• Uses the interpretative theory of international relations
• Gives comparative perspective using the cases of China and Japan
• Presents in-depth analysis of the construction and contestation of national memory in China and Japan

Dr. Matteo Dian is a Research Fellow at School of Political Sciences of the University of Bologna. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the Italian Institute of Human Sciences (Scuola Normale Superiore) in Florence. He held visiting positions at University of Oxford, London School of Economics, the Johns Hopkins SAIS (Bologna Center), and the European University Institute. He also taught at the University of Bologna, Ca' Foscari University in Venice, and at the overseas programs of the James Madison University, Kent State University and Vanderbilt University. He is also author of The Evolution Of The Us-Japan Alliance: The Eagle And The Chrysanthemum (Chandos Books, 2014) and co-editor of The Chinese Challenge To The Western Order (FBK Press, 2014)

1. Theorizing the Role of Collective Memory in International Politics 2. Japan's Memory During the Postwar Period (1945-1989) 3. The Battle of Memory in the Heisei Era 4. China's Collective Memory between the Revolution and Tiananmen Square 5. Collective Memory and Foreign-Policy in China after the Cold War 6. Conclusion