Blue Shield International was pleased to support the Command and Staff College of the German Armed Forces and Engagement Global at this year’s Coping with Culture Conference, from 5 to 7 October 2022 at the Civil-Military Cooperation Center of Excellence, in The Hague.
The conference encouraged an interesting exchange on the broad field of intercultural education in both military and civilian settings. Blue Shield International and partners ran a workshop that was open to heritage professionals and armed forces. It was intended to develop civil-military relations in the field of cultural property protection, encouraging closer working relationships, and develop delegates ability to plan in order to protect cultural property in the event of armed conflict, leading to better CPP.
Workshop 3: Including mapped and unmapped heritage in military planning: navigating the landscape
Dr Emma Cunliffe, Newcastle University, UK / Blue Shield International
Dr Tobias Strahl, Traversals Intelligence
Cpt Ankie Peterson and Erik Vriellink, Sectie CAI 1CMIco, Commando Landstrijdkrachten, Ministerie van Defensie
This workshop aimed to assist participating delegates develop their ability to consider the difficulties in including mapped and unmapped heritage of international, national, and local significance in operational military planning. The workshop was split into four parts. It began by introducing the attendees, who were from both heritage and military backgrounds, to each other and to the Blue Shield Movement, before discussing the complexities of heritage listing and cultural landscapes. This was followed by a mapping exercise, and then an introduction to Traversals Intelligence Platform in a real time exercise, finishing with syndicate briefings and feedback.
Workshop Goals
The exercise was designed to provide an exercise environment in which both military and civilian practitioners can work collaboratively towards this aim.
- To familiarise participants with the complexities of heritage listing in peace and conflict and how it can affect operational planning
- To introduce participants to new tools operating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) for identifying significant heritage
- To develop partnerships between armed forces and heritage professionals to establish how each can inform the other.
The workshop was facilitated by a team of cultural property protection specialists who assisted participating delegates develop their ability to consider and include mapped and unmapped heritage of international, national, and local significance in military planning in the event of armed conflict. It was designed to provide an exercise environment in which both military and civilian practitioners could work collaboratively towards this aim.
Working in small syndicates, delegates were presented with a conflict scenario and assigned the task of planning a logistics route through a cultural landscape containing mapped and unmapped heritage. Delegates explored the difficulties inherent in navigating heritage of varying significance to different communities of interest and the operational imperatives that underpin military planning.
