What is it about?
An in-depth study of heritage and warfare from the perspective of defence studies, the book focuses on how, in different contexts, heritage can be a catalyst and target of conflict, an obstacle to stabilisation, and a driver of peace-building. It documents the changing role of heritage – in terms of both exploitation and protection – in various military capabilities, theatres, and operations. With particular concern for the areas of subthreshold and hybrid warfare, stabilisation, cultural relationships, human security, and disaster response, the volume reviews the historical relationship between heritage and armed conflict, including the roles of embedded archaeologists, safeguarding of ethics, and dislodgement and destruction of material culture. Various chapters in the book also demonstrate the value of understanding how state and non-state actors exploit cultural heritage across different defence postures and within both subthreshold and proxy warfare in order to achieve military, political, economic, and diplomatic advantages.
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Photo by Abhay Ravindran on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The relationship between culture and conflict is not new and given that the link between culturecide and genocide is well established, it is a debate that resurfaces every time our shared material past becomes focussed in a weapon’s crosshairs. In eastern Europe, culture once again finds itself on the war’s frontline where the resistance of regular and irregular Ukrainian forces, Russian logistical difficulties, and the supply of lethal aid to Ukraine from third countries have slowed, and in some cases reversed, Russian advances. Nonetheless, Ukraine is currently facing humanitarian challenges on a scale not seen in Europe since the Second World War, with implications for the wider region. With museums, memorials, galleries, places of worship, and historic buildings abandoned and facing damage and destruction or vulnerable to looting, heritage has been called the ‘third front’ by the UK Culture Secretary.
Perspectives
This book will be of interest to students of defence studies, heritage studies, anthropology and security studies in general, as well as military practitioners.
Mark Dunkley
Cranfield University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Cultural Heritage in Modern Conflict, August 2022, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9781003262312.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Wargaming the exploitation of cultural heritage
The exploitation of cultural heritage remains a tool of war; tangible and intangible heritage are closely interlinked and that attacks on one are usually accompanied by assaults on the other on a scale between culturecide and genocide. The exploitation of cultural heritage is therefore not a new phenomenon and conflict is rarely kind to art and antiquities.
Protecting Cultural Heritage in the event of Armed Conflict
Culture, being on the front lines of conflicts, is too often a victim of hostilities. The destruction of heritage fuels violence, hatred and vengeance among people and weakens the very foundations of peace, hindering reconciliation when the dust of war settles.
Contributors
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