The Foreign Service Journal, May 2006

collectors and museums in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan.” The occurrence of this nation- wide plunder should alarm all those concerned about protecting cultural heritage. It also raises a host of questions: Is current inter- national law adequate to protect cultural property during and after military conflict? What is the extent of U.S. obligations in such situations? Has the U.S. complied with them? The authors walk the reader through the confusing labyrinth of national and international legal regimes for the protection of archeological heritage, explaining how the State Department imple- ments requests for import restric- tions made under such conven- tions. When the United States lifted sanctions on Iraq in May 2003, it continued to prohibit the import of Iraqi cultural materials, and in December 2004, the Emergency Protection for Iraqi Cultural Anti- quities Act was signed into law after a great deal of lobbying from the American academic communi- ty. The authors believe that, although these mechanisms have been developed to assist in deterring the looting of archeological sites, many weaknesses remain, in part because popular opinion still regards archeology as “glorified treasure hunting, with no conception of its rigorous methodology or research programs.” Unfortunately, relatively few understand the consequences for human knowledge when artifacts are deprived of their context or when sites are destroyed. The authors conclude that archeology is like evolutionary biology —— extinction is forever. Cultural her- itage is not a renewable resource, and what is happening in Iraq affects us all. n Aleta Wenger, a recently-retired FSO, served in Manama, Doha, Amman, Cairo and Washington, D.C. She is currently working in the Office of International Affairs at Yale Univer- sity. M A Y 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 61 B O O K S u accom4u new