War on Culture: The Destruction of Cultural Property During Civil Wars

Abstract

Acts of violence against civilians during conflict is a topic that has been examined increasingly in the literature on civil war. However, a systematic study on the destruction of cultural and religious sites as a strategic means to achieve territorial control has not yet been explored. I examine this aspect of civilian targeting in this project, and I argue that in many cases, combatants use cultural property as a tool to gain territory, coerce civilians, public perception, and degrade the social fabric of a given religion or population. In preliminary research, I have observed that destruction of a population‘s cultural property indicates and precurses a willingness to destroy human lives. Through a cross-national empirical analysis of civil wars in Iraq and Syria after 1990, I anticipate that the destruction of culturally significant objects and sites is not collateral damage during civil war, but rather intentional actions through which combatants achieve and exert power.