Security researcher: attacking cultural heritage is an attack on a nation's identity

British security expert Craig Ross argues in a recent interview that threats to cultural heritage during wartime are nothing new. According to him, destroying an opponent's cultural assets, looting trophies, and deliberately erasing a people's identity rank among the oldest strategies of warfare, practiced from antiquity to the present day.

From a historians' concern to a security issue

Ross notes that governments worldwide are increasingly recognizing that cultural heritage is no longer solely the responsibility of historians, archaeologists, or museum staff. Today it is regarded as part of national security, since attacks on monuments, archives, or other cultural assets are effectively directed against the identity of a state and its people as a whole.

The expert points out that this understanding is also changing the approach to protecting cultural heritage — it is no longer treated merely as rescue or restoration work carried out after a conflict, but as an issue that must be built into broader security and defence planning from the outset.

The interview comes at a time when the vulnerability of cultural heritage in conflict zones remains a relevant topic on the international stage.