ISIS: The Great Threat to Culture

After a terrorist group destroys ancient temples, artifacts, and monuments, what are the cultural impacts that this might have on a country? This is quite a worthwhile research question to pose since it provides an approach to studying terrorism that is more focused on effects rather than causes. The current and relevant research on terrorism has not looked much into the connection between how a terrorist group behaves and the effects that such behavior has on a culture. The more insight we gain into how terrorists impact the cultures that they attack, the closer we are to understanding the strategy and motive of terrorists groups and why they might choose to target a country’s ancient ruins or artifacts. To explore terrorism’s cultural impact, this paper relies on a historical analysis of a single-case study that involves studying one terrorist group. The main argument of this paper is that when terrorist groups, such as ISIS in particular, damage and destroy cultural artifacts, sites and monuments, they deliver a huge blow to the rich cultural heritage of the region(s) where those attacks took place