Tom Weiss, a specialist on humanitarian intervention and the United Nations, believes we are at a watershed moment for international cooperation on the protection of cultural heritage. In this episode, Weiss uses the ongoing civil war in Syria as a springboard to address the preservation of monuments and cultural heritage during times of humanitarian crisis and armed conflict. He traces the evolution of thinking and action on this issue, considering the role of the UN, useful legal frameworks, and how approaches to safeguarding cultural heritage might mirror approaches to protecting human rights and lives. Weiss is Presidential Professor of Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York and the author of the occasional paper Cultural Cleansing and Mass Atrocities: Protecting Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict Zones, available for free at getty.edu.
