Cultural heritage and illicit trafficking in the Middle East are two key topics of our time. The book sheds light on both aspects, and identifies the need to democratize cultural heritage, by giving greater control to local communities. It also investigates the link between local hotbeds of conflict and violence in countries such as Syria and Iraq, as well as war economics, transnational criminal networks and the politics of deliberate destruction and theft of cultural heritage. Finally, the chapters analyze the impact of non-violent and violent non-state actors, fragile states, forced migration, environmental degradation, as well as how local and international institutions have reacted to the dramatic events which the region and its inhabitants have experienced in recent years

Lorenzo Kamel is Associate Professor of History of the Middle East and North Africa at the University of Turin and director of IAI's Research Studies. He taught at several universities in Europe, the US, and the Middle East, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University for two years, and a Marie Curie Experienced Researcher at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.