Erik Nemeth, Cultural Security: Evaluating the Power of Culture in International Affairs [Book Review]

Book review: London: Imperial College Press, 2015, pp. 289, ISBN: 978-1-78326-548-0. This is a useful collection of writings on issues of great importance. The author has overstated, however, in claiming that they mark the constitution of a new filed, ‘cultural security’, that “encompasses research, analysis and strategies aimed at mitigating exploitation of cultural property as a pawn in foreign relations, and as a tool in acts of political violence and terrorism” (p.40). The domains to be encompassed are multiple as well. They include the destruction and defacement of historic monuments or the looting of art objects during armed conflicts, whether between or within states, notably at the hands of religious fanatics or terrorist groups as is the case today They also include the looting of art objects and artefacts during wartime or the theft from archaeological sites or museums of such objects in times of peace, as well as their smuggling to marketplaces in other countries. These are all topics that many other scholars have analysed already, but usually separately, in an abundant literature that the author has drawn upon fully. For the purposes of the present volume, the author has brought together ten of his previously published journal articles in order to make his case. Thus constructed, the writing is marred by a certain amount of avoidable repetition.