It is hard to disagree that a country’s cultural heritage plays a great role in its development, economy, and identify. Unfortunately, parts of cultural property are damaged during armed conflicts because the military fails to consider the importance of museums, theatres, and other objects. A four-tier approach to cooperation between relevant agencies, such as the military, and cultural property experts is expected to make it easier to preserve and protect cultural values and artefacts.
The first tier is long-term training that refers to effectively and constantly educating the members of the army. For instance, they need to learn about “the generic value of cultural property as a source of national pride, dignity and wellbeing” (Stone, 2013, p. 173). The second tier is immediate pre-deployment training, during which all area-specific cultural objects will be identified so that the involved troops and experts are aware of the need and ways to protect them. Thirdly, the “during conflict” tier of cooperation involves cultural property protectors’ active involvement in preventing the looting of archaeological sites and collections and reminding the army about cultural heritage of the certain area (Stone, 2013, p. 174). Eventually, during the final tier, all the required resources are used to mitigate any damage caused during the conflict.
The essence of protecting cultural property cannot be overestimated, and there are at least two reasons for that. Thus, cultural heritage defines the identity of a nation and helps shape its beliefs, values, and connection with ancestors. Second, different museums, libraries, monuments, and other cultural objects play a significant role in the economy of a country. As mentioned by Stone (2013), there was significant damage done to cultural property during World War II. For instance, at those times, Dresden was a beautiful city famous for its arts and architecture (Dawsey, 2020). However, the 1945 military operation destroyed most of the city’s cultural heritage, erasing its history and values and depriving the whole world from what was culturally valuable in Dresden.
To conclude, it is required to pay more attention to protecting and preserving cultural properties. The proposed four-tier approach to cooperation between non-governmental and governmental agencies and cultural property experts should help these groups reduce the damage caused by military conflicts. If most of a city’s or a country’s cultural heritage is protected, the negative effects on its economy and national identity will be decreased.
References
Dawsey, J. (2020). Apocalypse in Dresden, February 1945. The National WWII Museum. Web.
Stone, P. (2013). A four-tier approach to the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. Antiquity, 87(335), 166-177. Web.