Ashley Valanzola

Diplomatic Protection of History: the International Debate over Cultural Property Ashley Valanzola

The goal of this paper is to bring something different to the cultural property debate. What problems exist because of disagreements over cultural property? What ways can countries work together to address problems of looting? What can be gained by sharing cultural property across borders? The looting of cultural property is an international problem and countries are able to address this problem through coordinated efforts of prevention. Organizations and groups such as UNESCO, museums, and archaeologists work together using individual initiatives, international treaties and bilateral treaties to solve these issues. Once countries move past issues of ownership, sharing cultural property enables them to work better with one another. Tensions caused by cultural differences diminish when shared cultural property teaches about the history of other countries and deepens the average citizen?s understanding of foreign countries. Diplomacy can be carried out through a number of different channels, and coordinating with other countries to share and protect cultural property is one nontraditional but effective method.