Bundesheer

This book originates from the international Seminar "Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict - a Challenge in Peace Support Operations”, which was held from 24 to 28 September 2001 in Bregenz, Austria. The seminar took place within the framework of the Partnership for Peace Initiative and constituted an effort within the cooperation field "Democratic Control Of Forces and Defense Structures”. The broad range of topics discussed and presented during the seminar covered aims and principles of the protection of cultural property as well as current protection activities and lessons learned from recent conflicts, ethical and esthetic aspects of the subject matter and explored also future steps for cultural property protection and concerted international action. Apart from comprehensive international participation in the seminar, the institutions of the Austrian Ministry of Defense as well as those of other government agencies demonstrated a significant amount of both organizational and intellectual "Jointness”. One result of this fruitful cooperation has to be seen in the fact that the National Defense Academy Vienna, as the institution for higher and advanced leadership education and within the Austrian military establishment, could not only contribute to the seminar itself but is also in charge of putting together this publication. As the editors we would like to thank all the presenters for their contributions, both in the seminar and to this publication. The essays and articles contained in this book should provide valuable substance for reflection and further dialogue, leading far beyond the seminar event as well as the moment of publication of this compilation. At this point, it should be emphasized that the opinions expressed in this volume do solely represent the personal views of the authors and do not portray any official stances or policies. Apart from the authors, however, we would like to express our gratitude to all the others who helped to make this publication possible. We truly wish to extend our thankfulness to Mrs. Eva Nemec, research assistant in the Institute for Military Sociology and Defense Pedagogy, for her help and painstaking work regarding lay-out and technical assistance, and to Dr. Benjamin Novak for his editorial support. In the light of the new challenges to security, the demanded closer cooperation between civil and military forces in the fields of crises prevention as well as crises and conflict management, this publication will hopefully have a substantial impact on joint efforts to reach interoperability between civil and military, governmental and non-governmental experts in the ever more important arena of protecting cultural treasures in the event of armed crises, conflict and outright war.