Conflict and Cultural Destruction: Why Totalitarian Regimes Seek to Destroy Historical Memory
Evoking memory of the Nazi onslaught on cultural icons, the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan statues and ISIS's pillaging of pre-Islamic sites has horrified contemporary observers and raised new concerns about the ways certain regimes seek to destroy historical memory. This expert panel will analyze the causes and broader consequences of demolishing culture and heritage and the challenges it poses in today’s world.
Conflict and Cultural Destruction: Why Totalitarian Regimes Seek to Destroy Historical Memory
Evoking memory of the Nazi onslaught on cultural icons, the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan statues and ISIS's pillaging of pre-Islamic sites has horrified contemporary observers and raised new concerns about the ways certain regimes seek to destroy historical memory. At the same time, new narratives of cultural persistence and survival are emerging, such as Romanian efforts in the Cold War to circumvent censorship through theatre, or contemporary ways to counter hardline censorship of Persian literature in Iran. This expert panel will analyze the causes and broader consequences of demolishing culture and heritage and the challenges it poses in today’s world.
The panel will be followed by the opening of an art exhibition entitled “Last Folio: A Photographic Memory,” which documents books and buildings of cultural significance destroyed in Slovakia during the Holocaust. A short film documenting the origins of this exhibition will open the discussion at 4:30pm.
C-SPAN video coverage of the event is available here.
Speakers
Cristina A. Bejan
Executive Director, Bucharest Inside the Beltway
Peter Black
Deborah Lehr
Azar Nafisi
Christian F. Ostermann
Woodrow Wilson Center
Hosted By
Global Europe Program
The Global Europe Program addresses vital issues affecting the European continent, U.S.-European relations, and Europe’s ties with the rest of the world. It does this through scholars-in-residence, seminars, policy study groups, media commentary, international conferences and publications. Activities cover a wide range of topics, from the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE to European energy security, trade disputes, challenges to democracy, and counter-terrorism. The program investigates European approaches to policy issues of importance to the United States, including globalization, digital transformation, climate, migration, global governance, and relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Read more
Middle East Program
The Wilson Center’s Middle East Program serves as a crucial resource for the policymaking community and beyond, providing analyses and research that helps inform U.S. foreign policymaking, stimulates public debate, and expands knowledge about issues in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Read more
History and Public Policy Program
The History and Public Policy Program uses history to improve understanding of important global dynamics, trends in international relations, and American foreign policy. Read more
