On her book A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace
Cover Interview of February 06, 2019
In a nutshell
A Future in Ruins tells the story of UNESCO and its
efforts to save the cultural wonders of the world, largely through its famous
World Heritage program. I wanted to understand how and why the past comes to
matter in the present, who shapes the political agendas, and who wins or loses
as a consequence. Today it remains critical that we educate ourselves about the
politics at work in cultural productions such as World Heritage and understand
that we can never escape the past and are, in fact, too often doomed to repeat it.
Forged in the twilight of empire and led by the victors of the
war and major colonizing powers, UNESCO’s founders sought to expand their
influence through the last gasps of the civilizing mission. Beginning as a
program of reconstruction for a war-ravaged Europe, UNESCO soon set its sights
on the developing world. Its aim was to formulate and disseminate global
standards for education, science, and cultural activities. However, it would
remain a one-way flow, later to prove problematic, from the West to the rest.
Within a matter of years, the philosophical appeal for cultural understanding
and uplift, a culture of peace no less, would be sidelined by the functionalist
objectives of short-term technical assistance.
Ruins were also on the agenda for reconstruction. But it was
not simply that great buildings, museums, and art were affected by the war and
required rehabilitation. It was the regulation of the past itself, and how it
might be recovered, that was deemed part of a new world order. How
archaeological excavations were conducted around the world and the resulting
discoveries were disseminated also required restructuring. Ultimately, archaeology’s
spoils were to be divided up for Western advantage, echoing earlier
recommendations made by the League of Nations. The past would be managed for
the future. UNESCO capitalized upon an already existing momentum for a
world-making project devoted to humanity’s heritage. What followed was an
inevitable progression from the vast conservation and restoration efforts
needed in the wake of destruction after two world wars toward a more lasting
project of rehabilitation and recovery.
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
In a nutshell
A Future in Ruins tells the story of UNESCO and its efforts to save the cultural wonders of the world, largely through its famous World Heritage program. I wanted to understand how and why the past comes to matter in the present, who shapes the political agendas, and who wins or loses as a consequence. Today it remains critical that we educate ourselves about the politics at work in cultural productions such as World Heritage and understand that we can never escape the past and are, in fact, too often doomed to repeat it.
Forged in the twilight of empire and led by the victors of the war and major colonizing powers, UNESCO’s founders sought to expand their influence through the last gasps of the civilizing mission. Beginning as a program of reconstruction for a war-ravaged Europe, UNESCO soon set its sights on the developing world. Its aim was to formulate and disseminate global standards for education, science, and cultural activities. However, it would remain a one-way flow, later to prove problematic, from the West to the rest. Within a matter of years, the philosophical appeal for cultural understanding and uplift, a culture of peace no less, would be sidelined by the functionalist objectives of short-term technical assistance.
Ruins were also on the agenda for reconstruction. But it was not simply that great buildings, museums, and art were affected by the war and required rehabilitation. It was the regulation of the past itself, and how it might be recovered, that was deemed part of a new world order. How archaeological excavations were conducted around the world and the resulting discoveries were disseminated also required restructuring. Ultimately, archaeology’s spoils were to be divided up for Western advantage, echoing earlier recommendations made by the League of Nations. The past would be managed for the future. UNESCO capitalized upon an already existing momentum for a world-making project devoted to humanity’s heritage. What followed was an inevitable progression from the vast conservation and restoration efforts needed in the wake of destruction after two world wars toward a more lasting project of rehabilitation and recovery.