Fragmented guardianship: Navigating legal, financial, and operational challenges in cultural heritage protection during armed conflict

Over the past decades, the international system for protecting cultural heritage in armed conflict has evolved from the state-centered framework of the 1954 Hague Convention into a complex and diversified network of governmental, intergovernmental, and civil-society actors. While this transformation has expanded participation and operational reach, it has also generated new tensions. This article traces the system’s legal and institutional development and examines how contemporary governance and funding mechanisms shape its effectiveness in practice. Drawing on insights from the literature and an illustrative example from Heritage for Peace, it argues that the proliferation of actors and donor frameworks has produced a fragmented architecture marked by politicization, short-termism, and persistent asymmetries of power. The analysis highlights the need to reconnect legal principles with field realities and to foster more coherent, inclusive, and ethically grounded approaches to heritage protection in conflict and post-conflict settings.