Hybrid mnemonic resource and diplomatic dispute: an analysis of the 2018 lawfare operation by Poland’s illiberal government

What were the means by which Poland's illiberal government adapted collective memories of wartime suffering to pursue strategic goals? This article substantiates the concept of a hybrid mnemonic resource and explains how its introduction in domestic politics reverberated in diplomatic practices. Focusing on a lawfare operation undertaken by the Law and Justice (PiS) government, we employ process tracing to explain the design of this hybrid mnemonic resource, composed of anti-defamation legislation and memory narratives, with the formation of the latter being enabled by intensified international news coverage of the legislative process. We then demonstrate how this political action, launched at home, which led to Poland's diplomatic dispute with Israel and the United States, advanced strategic goals through the repurposing of collective memory. The implications of this lawfare operation for scholarship on diplomatic practices under the fluid conditions of the illiberal turn in Polish politics are subsequently discussed.