Iraq's Cultural Heritage Can Be a Double-Edged Sword

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Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq has sought to reshape its global image, shifting from a legacy of aggression—most notably the 1990 invasion of Kuwait—to one centered on cultural diplomacy. With a civilization spanning over 6,000 years, the country's post-Saddam leadership recognized the potential of soft power as a peaceful and effective means of rebuilding its international relationships and national identity.
Successive Iraqi governments also realized that promoting cultural engagement faced less resistance than traditional diplomacy and was an effective starting point for mending long-standing geopolitical tensions, particularly with neighboring countries like Kuwait. As such, cultural diplomacy became a cornerstone of Iraq's post-Saddam foreign policy, helping to forge international cultural ties, attract financial partnerships and restore its devastated cultural heritage, particularly after the territorial defeat of the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS, in 2017.
One pivotal early example occurred in 2004, when Iraq sent a cultural delegation of 40 literary and cultural figures to Kuwait at the invitation of Kuwaiti poet Abdulaziz Al-Babtain, marking the first significant contact between the two nations after decades of animosity. Through joint poetry readings and cultural dialogue, this group laid the foundation for renewed diplomatic and geopolitical discussions between the two countries, demonstrating how shared cultural values could foster understanding and cooperation.
Iraq has also strategically leveraged its rich historical heritage as a platform for facilitating political engagement and global partnerships. This approach not only helped establish Iraq's soft power in the international community in the years since Saddam's fall but also enabled collaboration among Iraqi and international experts.
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A notable instance of this strategy of cultural diplomacy came in the aftermath of the destruction of Iraqi cultural sites by ISIS after it seized broad swathes of territory in 2014. Iraq used global outrage over the loss of these sites—a collective legacy for all humankind—to galvanize support in the years following the group's defeat. Its ability to transform a tragic loss into cultural solidarity and international engagement was highlighted in early 2024, when Italy donated a 3D-printed replica of the Assyrian 'Bull of Nimrud' statue, dating from the 9th century BCE and destroyed by ISIS in 2015, to the Basra Museum.
For Italy and other partners, the partnership offered an opportunity to display solidarity with Iraq, but also with the norm of cultural heritage preservation. As Italy's then-culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said at the statue's dedication ceremony in Iraq, 'Italy is at the forefront of safeguarding cultural heritage. It will therefore continue to make every effort to advance international collaboration in the field of cultural heritage protection.'
Engaging with international technical experts and accessing available global funding for heritage preservation is another goal of Iraq's active participation in cultural diplomacy as an instrument of soft power, as highlighted in its efforts to restore cultural heritage destroyed by ISIS in Mosul. That involved tapping into international assistance, with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, providing technical advice and fostering cooperation.
One of the flagship projects to grow out of that effort was the restoration of the 840-year-old al-Nuri Mosque and its al-Hadba minaret, destroyed by ISIS in 2017. Begun in 2018 and completed in February, the restoration was funded by the United Arab Emirates, which allocated $50 million to the project, and supervised by UNESCO. The collaboration also marked a positive shift in Iraq-UAE relations, which had been slow to develop after the fall of Saddam due to political factors and the influence of pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq. The restoration initiative served as a nonpolitical foundation for enhancing cooperation in broader political and security matters.
The Mosul Museum's collaboration with the Louvre to restore its facility and collection, including antiquities such as the 9th-century BCE 'Lion of Nimrud' statue destroyed by ISIS in 2015, was a similar step in deepening cultural ties between Iraqi and international experts.
Rebuilding destroyed heritage projects is a good place to start. As Iraqi President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid put it, 'Iraqi heritage is inexhaustible wealth,' offering the country an opportunity to show the world a side of itself that contrasts sharply with the conventional global image of it over the past 20 years as being mired in security crises and overrun by militants.
Cultural diplomacy and the restoration of Iraq's cultural heritage have also played a crucial role in fostering national unity and rebuilding national pride since the fall of Saddam and the defeat of ISIS. Iraqis take immense pride in their ancient cultural heritage, so the looting of the National Museum of Iraq in 2003 and the destruction of iconic sites like the 3,000-year-old city of Nimrud outside Mosul by ISIS in 2015 deeply wounded their collective sense of identity.
Recognizing the importance of preserving this heritage, Rashid and other Iraqi leaders have worked to not only restore but also reclaim Iraq's historical legacy as a means of healing the nation. In 2023, as part of these efforts, Iraq saw the return of a significant Assyrian artifact from Italy and 6,000 artifacts loaned by the British Museum. By reclaiming these historical artifacts, the Iraqi government is seeking to bolster Iraqi's collective identity and create a healthy nationalist sentiment. Work is currently underway to recover more than 40,000 other artifacts that are still scattered around the world.
The loss of these cultural artifacts and monuments has at times amplified social divisions, fostering alienation and distrust among Iraqis. However, efforts to restore monuments such as the Mosul Museum and Nimrud have served as catalysts for social unity, demonstrating the Iraqi people's resilience and the power of a shared cultural identity.
A key example of this was the 'Return to Mosul' art exhibition in 2019, a joint effort between Al-Ghad Radio and the Mosul Artists' Committee, which brought together diverse communities to use art as a medium for storytelling and healing. The exhibition sought to bridge social gaps by narrating the history of Mosul's occupation by ISIS and envisioning a more tolerant future.
Finally, the rebuilding of Iraq's cultural heritage is not just about restoring physical sites but also about creating jobs and strengthening cooperation within the country. The 'Revive the Spirit of Mosul' project—a collaboration between UNESCO, the UAE, the U.S., the European Union and other partners, of which the al-Nuri Mosque restoration was a part—exemplifies this approach. This initiative has created 6,000 new jobs and trained over 1,300 young people in traditional crafts like carpentry, stonemasonry and painting. By combining cultural restoration with economic empowerment, these efforts are fostering a sense of collective unity, contributing to the nation's recovery and rekindling national pride.
However, Iraq still has a long way to go in using its cultural heritage to nurture national cohesion and identity. The existence of numerous tribal and cultural communities and opposing religious groups that have used confrontation and even conflict with each other in the construction of their collective identities has made this process difficult.
Since 2003, Iraq's elites have also appropriated the country's rich cultural heritage in the service of various harmful agendas. These range from commercialization to the propagation of exclusionary political and sectarian narratives, the latter facilitated by Iraq's governance system, which divides political power along sectarian lines. This leaves each group in control of the archaeological sites in its region of the country, free to use the revenue and other resources derived from cultural heritage to serve their ethno-sectarian goals and agendas, rather than to enhance national identity and cultural cohesion. In this way, they seek to use Iraq's shared history and identities to create cultural divides rather than ambitious national agendas.
One example is the reconstruction in Babil of the Shrine of the Prophet Ezekiel, known as Al-Kifl in Iraq, the biblical prophet of the exiled Judean community in Babylon in the 6th century BCE. Until 2010, the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage was the custodian of the complex, which consisted of a shrine, a synagogue, a mosque and adjacent Ottoman-era khans, or inns. However, ownership was subsequently transferred to the Shiite Endowment, based on the claim that Imam Ali—the first Shiite religious leader in the middle of the 6th century CE—camped and prayed at the site. In the decade since the endowment assumed control of the site, it has used a series of interventions to remove the synagogue and khans, expand the mosque and build new minarets, in an effort to advance its own sectarian interests and narratives, to the detriment of Iraqi national identity.
Over the past 20 years, Iraq has used cultural diplomacy as a tool to advance its soft power and promote international engagements, as well as to enhance national cohesion and the creation of a common identity among the country's at times conflicting tribal and religious communities. In its efforts to reclaim its cultural heritage in the global arena and reconstruct ancient sites destroyed by ISIS, Iraq has been able to revive a spirit of collective cooperation and shared identity in the domestic arena. Meanwhile, technical cooperation with global partners has paved the way for a cultural coalition to reconstruct humanity's common heritage in Iraq, further illustrating and bolstering Iraqi soft power.
However, Iraq still faces challenges and limitations in the domestic uses of its cultural heritage, which must be addressed by prioritizing national cooperation over sectarianism and ethnic differences.
Mohammad Salami holds a doctorate in international relations. He is a research associate at the International Institute for Global Strategic Analysis (IIGSA). He can be followed on X/Twitter at @moh_salami.
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