Cultural Heritage and the Arab Spring: A Review of (Inter)National Efforts to Safeguard Heritage Under Fire

Abstract

Several national and international initiatives and responses to promote and protect cultural heritage have emerged in the wake of the revolutionary movements—or the so-called Arab Spring—in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that turned into armed conflicts in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. The destruction of cultural heritage differs in form and extent between regions and countries. A steady stream of photos and articles have been produced to document the damage, highlighting the cultural history and significance of specific areas, buildings and monuments (e.g. Ali, 2013; Brodie, 2015; Casana, 2015; Casana & Panahipour, 2014; Cunliffe, 2012, 2014; Danti, 2015; Fisk, 2008; Kila, 2013; Newson & Young, 2017; Stone, 2013, 2015). Efforts have also been made to encourage the preservation and conservation of endangered cultural heritage sites in an attempt to strengthen and maintain the identity and memory of those sites among local people (Al Quntar, 2013; Al Quntar, Hanson, Daniels, & Wegener, 2015; Munawar, 2017a). It has been argued that these initiatives to safeguard heritage in the midst of conflict are new forms of colonialism and have already been reinforced by over a century of Western archaeological excavations that have deepened imperialist agendas in the Middle East. The ruination and devastation that have occurred—and are still occurring—in Syria and Iraq have drawn attention to many studies that are concerned with the preservation and conservation of damaged cultural heritage. This chapter focuses on the initiatives of the world community that are concerned with the destruction of cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq in an effort to clarify the forms of intervention (i.e. workshops, training, press releases, petitions, lectures, etc.), their temporal duration (i.e. short, mid, long term), timing (i.e. dates of establishment and implementation, etc.), and physical location (i.e. locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally). The chapter goes on to analyze to what extent the world community’s efforts have succeeded in safeguarding cultural heritage sites from damage or destruction and how research projects have overlapped in their approaches. To conclude, it demonstrates how social media platforms, such as Facebook, Blogs, YouTube, and so forth, have been utilized to preserve cultural heritage.