Preserving cultural heritage and national identities for international peace and security

This volume contains two sections: the first one collects the proceedings of the international Workshop on “Preserving Cultural Heritage and National Identities for International Peace and Security” held at the Italian Center for Higher Defence Studies on the 10th and 11th May 2018. The second includes several articles dealing with various topics, which complement the Workshop’s proceedings.
A general conclusion can be inferred from the Workshop: the mandates of the UN peace operations should be aimed – if necessary – at protecting cultural pluralism as well as cultural and religious identities. Hence, the staff employed should be trained on such a protection and indeed numerous States are already introducing that specific training. Performing such a task has always been of primary importance to the Italian armed forces.
This attitude has been usually appreciated, even though some obstacles and difficulties have arisen due to a rather uncooperative attitude of some partner States. Therefore, the protection of cultural and religious pluralism should fully become a shared responsibility in peace operations given its importance as a means of consolidating peace in crisis areas.