A FUTURE IN RUINS

Best known for its World Heritage program committed to the identification protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO was founded in 1945 as an intergovernmental agency aimed at fostering peace humanitarianism and intercultural understanding Its mission was inspired by leading European intellectuals such as Henri Bergson Marie Curie Albert Einstein Thomas Mann H G Wells and Aldous and Julian Huxley Often critiqued for its inherent Eurocentrism UNESCO and its World Heritage program today remain embedded within modernist principles of progress and development and subscribe to the liberal principles of diplomacy and mutual tolerance However its mission to prevent conflict destruction and intolerance while noble and much needed increasingly falls short as recent battles over the World Heritage sites of Preah Vihear Chersonesos Jerusalem Palmyra Aleppo and Sana a among others have underlined A Future in Ruins is the story of UNESCO s efforts to save the world s heritage and in doing so forge an international community dedicated to peaceful co existence and conservation It tr