A UNSECO heritage site of an old white building with 5 large windows situated in a forest with greenery surrounding it

The protection of cultural property in times of armed conflict: Ethics, gender, and coloniality

Annika Bergman Rosamond

In this short video abstract, Annika Bergman Rosamond discusses the key points from her new Review of International Studies article - The protection of cultural property in times of armed conflict: Ethics, gender, and coloniality

 

Want to know more? You can read the full article at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S026021052510140X

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Abstract 

Cultural heritage rests on imaginings of a shared humanity transcending national dividing lines. However, cultural heritage sites are frequently targeted in war. In this article I show that the politics of cultural protection is marked by tensions and contestations. A key argument is that the protection of cultural heritage in armed conflict is a militarised practice that informed by notions of protection that are broadly western-centred, masculinised. Therefore, I suggest they are insensitive to the gendered and colonial power relations that undergird the protection of cultural property. Informed by critical heritage studies, cosmopolitanism, and feminist IR scholarship, I elucidate the claims of this article through a feminist narrative analysis of the protection. I identify what is said and what is silenced in heritage protection narratives. First, I focus on the wider storytelling that surrounds heritage protection, unpacking the ethical, gendered, and colonial assumptions employed. Second, I turn to the narration of military protection in the UNESCO military manual. attending to its ethical underpinnings, protection logics, and privileging of distinctively western military knowledge. I conclude by calling for a more nuanced approach to cultural protection.

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