The Polish Academy of Science's Memocracy project (www.memocracy.eu) supported research for this article. Thanks also to the reviewers for all their helpful feedback - the article is much stronger for it.

The article is part of a special issue coordinated by Thomas Fetzer and Ivan Nikolovski. Read their introduction: academic.oup.com/isagsq/artic...

The article encourages further research into the interplay of norms, memory and diplomacy, for instance in Israel-Palestine.

For instance, most states echo Ukraine-centric memories of the Second World War. But divergent memories of colonialism have undermined efforts to hold Russia accountable.

It turns out cross-regional memories intersect in complex ways, with coalitions straddling, confirming and belying South-North and West v. Rest boundaries.

I suggest that state positions partly echo 'global memory' of five events and processes: World War Two, the Cold War, imperialism, colonialism and genocide.

Drawing on diplomatic debates at the UN Security Council, General Assembly and ICJ after February 2022, I illustrate how competing memories of oppression, war and mass violence have shaped states' normative responses to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.