We must Send UN Blue Helmet forces into the region to protect cultural heritage

Jim Cuno: The world must find ways to intervene and protect antiquities when nation-states cannot do so, send UN Blue Helmet forces into the region to protect cultural heritage

The international community has effectively outsourced the protection of cultural heritage to nation-states. As UNESCO declared in its 1970 Convention on cultural property, “It is incumbent upon every State to protect the cultural property existing within its territory against the dangers of theft, clandestine excavation, and illicit export” and that “the protection of cultural heritage can be effective only if organized both nationally and internationally among States working in close cooperation.”
But what if, as is increasingly obvious with regard to Iraq and Syria, nation states are incapable of protecting the cultural heritage within their borders? Sadly, the international community has very little recourse.