The destruction of cultural heritage during war times is not a new phenomenon.
It is a crime against the whole of humanity
As there have been many more destructions of cultural heritage by Islamic State over the last few years. Call from the Western world have said that the world should do everything in order to preserve those sites, as they hold significant positions in the history of human kind. Besides preserving history, what effect could preventing cultural heritage sites from coming into the hands of Islamic State have in the fight against them.
After events like …. Cultural heritage could be defined according to UNESCO… Examples of actions are…. This was all to safeguard the historical value they have.
It was another message from Islamic State to the Western world, as they deliberately destroyed an important symbol of origins of Western civilization. As it occurs more and more often that cultural heritage sites are destroyed by Islamic State.
Besides preserving history, how could preventing cultural heritage sites to come into the hand of Islamic State help the Global Coalition, consisting of 74 members whose mission it is to defeat Islamic State, in countering Islamic State (The Global Coalition, n.d.). This essay argues that a successful protection of cultural heritage from destruction by the Islamic State could help in the fight against Islamic State.
The cultural heritage may be defined as the entire corpus of material signs – either artistic or symbolic – handed on by the past to each culture and, therefore, to the whole of humankind. As a constituent part of the affirmation and enrichment of cultural identities, as a legacy belonging to all humankind, the cultural heritage gives each particular place its recognizable features and is the storehouse of human experience. http://cif.icomos.org/pdf_docs/Documents%20on%20line/Heritage%20definitions.pdf
To start, preventing cultural heritage to come into the hands of Islamic State could cause economic setbacks for IS. IS makes profits through several ways, like taxes and fees from the people under their regime, natural resources like oil, foreign donations, but also from selling antiquities they obtained from cultural heritage sites (Heißner et al. 2017, 7). In Turkey alone, which shares a border with IS territory, the authorities caught 6,800 objects from 2011 to 2016 that came from cultural heritage sites and where being smuggles across the border to be sold (Myers and Kulish, 2016). Estimates show that the profits IS makes from selling looted antiquities vary millions to hundreds of millions of dollars on a yearly base (Vlasic and Turku 2016, 1177). Also, in “The Islamic State’s symbolic war: Da’esh’s socially mediated terrorism as a threat to cultural heritage” Smith et al. state that internal profits, like looted antiquities, made by IS are essential for the continuation and survival of IS, as they can be used for the costs IS makes (Smith et al. 2016, 179-80). As IS makes profits from selling antiquities obtained from cultural heritage sites, preventing IS to lay hand on these cultural heritage sites will thus cause a financial setback for IS, affecting the chances of IS surviving. Furthermore, data found in a collaborative research in 2017 conducted by EY and the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, which is part of King’s College London, shows that although the share of antiquities is at the bottom of profit shares made by IS, with profits made from oil leading the list (Heißner et al. 2017, 8), the financials of IS are already in decline (Heißner et al. 2017, 10), which suggests that any profit made, even if it is not that much, is very valuable for IS. It was estimated that the overall income of IS decreased by approximately 50 percent in just two years from 1.9 billion dollars in 2014 to 870 million dollars in 2016 (Heißner et al. 2017, 10). This was mainly because of loss of in territory which resulted in less natural resources to sell, and fewer people and businesses to receive taxes from. Also, some actions taken by the Global Coalition to reduce Islamic State’s financial income have had some influence like actions taken at the border of IS’s territory to counter smuggling and Operation Tidal Wave II which was launched in 2015 which permitted attacking oil transportation lines and cash depots (Heißner et al. 2017, 12). Furthermore, IS has so far not succeeded to come up with new sources of funding that would replace the losses that have been made lately (Heißner et al. 2017, 5). The study suggests that if IS continues down the same path, their ‘”business model”’ will not last for long (Heißner et al. 2017, 3). main topic sentence
Another argument supporting the claim that preventing cultural heritage sites to fall into the hands of IS will help in the fight against them is that IS will lose a way to express their power and ideology on a global scale and recruit new members. Besides the fact that they do this because The emergence of social media brought a new way of terrorism into being. In “The Islamic State’s symbolic war: Da’esh’s socially mediated terrorism as a threat to cultural heritage”, this new way of terrorism is described as “socially mediated terrorism” (Smith et al. 2016, 164). The emergence of social media resulted in an opportunity for IS to use the destruction of cultural heritage as a way to ‘manipulate and persuade audiences’ (Smith et al. 2016, 181) and recruit new members on a global level (Smith et al. 2016, 174). Also, the emergence of social media caused that the ‘destruction of cultural heritage serves the strategic purpose of cloaking the Islamic State with an aura of invincibility through highlighting the impotence of its opponents.’ (Smith et al. 2016, 181). Furthermore, Paolo Foradori and Paolo Rosa, Professor and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Trento ((Foradori and Rosa 2017, 160), state that IS uses the distribution of images of them destructing cultural heritage sites as a new way of portraying their strength and “its radical, merciless, and unconditional ideology” which will recruit supporters from all over the world “by advertising its irresistible power” (Foradori and Rosa 2017, 150). So, due to the emergence of social media IS saw a chance to be able to propagate their ideas globally. The destruction of cultural heritage served to be a good tool for this. If Islamic State is prevented from access to cultural heritage to damage it, it loses a way to globally express their power and ideology and a way to recruit new members. This, in turn, might affect the powerful image the rest of world has of them and an ability to recruit new members, they will thus lose an ability to expand.
On the other hand, Foradori and Rosa warn that IS could move on to other activities through which they can show their power on a global scale, shifting from cultural destruction to human killings. This will be much more undesired than the destruction of global heritage and will neither shrink the activities of IS. The human attacks might even become crueler than before, as they might go back to human killings with even more brutality or they might focus on specific groups like women and children (Foradori and Rosa 2017, 157). However, the message IS wants to spread with these shifted violent activities will not be received as globally as the messages spread from the destruction of cultural heritage. This is in contrast to Foradori and Rosa who stated that human killings will reach the same goal as the destruction of cultural heritage in terms of distributing the IS ideology on a global scale (Foradori and Rosa 2017, 157). This is because in contrast to videos of the destruction of cultural heritages, videos of murders can be very unpleasant to watch for most people and the videos that are being circulated by IS will only fulfill their goal if they are actually being watched by people around the world (Smith et al. 2016, 176). So, keeping cultural heritage out of the hands of IS might indeed cause IS to lose their powerful face on a global level global, and an ability to recruit new members, they will thus lose an ability to expand.
Finally, as many cultural heritage sites have a good strategic military position, they can very valuable possessions for both IS and the Global Coalition fighting IS. The side who possesses the cultural heritage sites will have a military advantage over the other side. For example, in Syria and Iraq, there are a lot of cultural heritage sites with locations that have valuable features like being ‘on high ground, at important intersections or crossroads, near water’ (Foradori and Rosa 2017, 156). It is no coincidence that these sites have such a convenient spot. Back in the days, the sites have been built for certain purposes and over time they have not lost this feature (Foradori and Rosa 2017, 156). Foradori and Rose use 11th century castle Crac de Chevallier, medieval Aleppo’s Citadel and third century A.D. Bosra Castle, all Syrian cultural heritage on the UNESCO list as examples, saying that their ‘offensive and defensive values’ in terms of military defense features ‘are as pertinent in the current conflicts as they were when first constructed, which is precisely why all the parties have continued to battle for control over them,’ (Forador and Rosa 2017, 156). So, if these sites are in hands of the ones fighting IS, IS will have a military disadvantage and it might help the Global Coalition fighting Islamic State.
To conclude, successful protection of cultural heritage from destruction by the Islamic State could help the Global Coalition in the fight against Islamic State. Firstly, it will affect IS’s money supply, especially as their capital is already in decline. This will limit their financial resources. Secondly, IS will be less able to express its power and ideology and recruit members if they are not able to lay their hands on cultural heritage anymore. Through socially mediated terrorism, IS could use images of the destruction of cultural heritage to spread fear among the world and reach and attract new members with their ideology. IS might shift to deeds in which they focus more on human casualties, but the images of these practices will be less distributed among the world, as it is too cruel to show in the media, disabling IS to spread their ideology and to expand their territory. Lastly, as many cultural heritage sites have a strategic military position, the side who possesses the sites will have an advantage over the other side. This meaning that if the cultural heritage sites will not come in possession of IS, the international coalition will have a military advantage over IS. If measures are being taken, this will thus cut financial resources, cut a way to globally express strength, spread ideology and recruit members and take away a military advantage.
This essay could be useful for the Global Coalition that wants to counter the actions and the expansion of Islamic State, as it could help the Global Coalition to reach their goal. Furthermore, it stresses the importance of organizations like the UNESCO to continue programs trying to safeguard cultural heritage.
Originally published 15.10.2019
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