Introduction

This volume offers contributions for reflection on cooperation actions in fragile contexts, starting from the discussions that took place during the international conference “Cultural Heritage in Fragile Contexts—Development Cooperation in Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries”, held in Florence from the 10th to the 11th of November 2022. The event offered an opportunity for international discussion between researchers and international operators, as well as a chance to reflect on key relationships between the protection of cultural heritage and the generation of sustainable development. More specifically, focus was placed on the ways in which cultural protection actions can help mitigate social and economic fragilities in intervention areas, contributing to their sustainable development. The geographical focus of the conference, and of this volume, are the Middle and Central Asian areas, as these are areas where situations of fragility are recurrent, both in the socio-cultural sense—just think of the religious tensions between the Shiite and Sunni populations—as well as in political-military terms—the cases of Afghanistan and Syria are exemplary in this regard.