A Comparative Study of Mosul, Iraq, and Benghazi, Libya

Cultural heritage remains a critical yet underrecognized factor in armed conflicts. Deliberate targeting, mobilization, and manipulation of heritage sites can exacerbate conflict dynamics and become early casualties of war. Since the Arab Spring, conflicts across the Arab Region have inflicted extensive damage on built heritage, a situation compounded by weak economies, prolonged neglect, mismanagement, and limited institutional capacity in the heritage sector. This paper examines how conflict dynamics—encompassing actors, methods, resources, environments, and both material and immaterial impacts—with the addition of the agency of heritage sites during the conflict, shape post-conflict governmental responses and reconstruction efforts toward heritage. Focusing on the comparative case studies of Mosul, Iraq, and Benghazi, Libya, we analyze conflict triggers, escalation patterns, resolution processes, emergent power structures, and international involvement that collectively influence post-conflict heritage recovery. Despite similarities in timeline, urban warfare, and the fight against ISIS, the divergent approaches to heritage management in both cities underscore the complex interplay between conflict outcomes and cultural memory. Contributing to academic discourse on post-conflict urbanism and heritage recovery in rebuilding cities affected by conflict, this research highlights the importance of understanding conflict dynamics and post-conflict contexts to better protect and recover heritage after war.

Introduction

The role of cultural heritage in armed conflicts remains significantly underestimated. When cultural heritage is deliberately targeted, mobilized, or manipulated, it can fuel conflicts, thereby becoming one of the initial casualties of war. Recent conflicts across the Arab Region, particularly since the Arab Spring, have caused extensive damage to built heritage. In Iraq and Libya, as in other Arab countries, the devastation has been aggravated by weak economies, prolonged neglect, mismanagement, and the limited institutional capacity of the heritage sector. The conflict dynamics, the conflict resolution, and the conflict outcomes influence the post-conflict reconstruction context, wherein heritage narratives are shaped by the hands of the emergent power. Effective postwar heritage reconstruction requires a nuanced understanding of local sociopolitical and historical contexts. The post-conflict efforts to redefine emerging national identities shape the narratives of belonging and exclusion with significant consequences for social cohesion.¹

1. Dacia Viejo-Rose, “Reconstructing Heritage in the Aftermath of Civil War: Re-visioning the Nation and the Implications of International Involvement,” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 7, no. 2 (2013):125–48, https://doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.1080/17502977.2012.714241.

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