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"Humanitarianism: Keywords is a comprehensive dictionary designed as a compass for navigating the conceptual universe of humanitarianism. It is an intuitive toolkit to map contemporary humanitarianism and to explore its current and future articulations. The dictionary serves a broad readership of practitioners, students, and researchers by providing informed access to the extensive humanitarian vocabulary"--

Explores the ethical dilemma of providing humanitarian & foreign aid to areas where political tyrants & perpetrators of mass violence may benefit, but argues that the withdrawal of life-saving services in protest is unacceptable. Relentless & tenacious efforts by aid agencies to stop human rights violations can force negligent or ruthless governments & groups to change. US ostracism of the Democratic Republic of Congo diminished Washington's influence in central Africa, while engagement with the People's Republic of China, despite its human rights violations, offers potential leverage. Governments & agencies should not politicize their humanitarian efforts, but should work to humanize the political agenda of nations. Even though caught in a foreign policy vacuum, impartial humanitarian aid agencies cannot place themselves in the position to determine fugitives among the refugees & the undeserving among the destitute. L. A. Hoffman

"In Capitalist Humanitarianism, Lucia Hulsether reveals how left critiques of capitalism have been capitulated into efforts to reform and rebuilt capitalist institutions. From initiatives in the 1980s such as the fair trade chain Ten Thousand Villages to microfinance programs in Central America, humanitarians in the global North have brought capitalist institutions to the global South in the hope that free market projects can be part of feminist, decolonial, and anti-racist solidarity. Hulsether argues that these capitalist humanitarian projects must be understood through their relationship to Christianity. Writing against what she points to as a misguided attempt to redeem capitalist logics as part of a reparative commitment to transformative worldmaking, Hulsether shows that left critiques have become incorporated into neoliberal logics, making way for new institutional hegemonies that continue to expand racial and neocolonial disposession"--

Extent to which U.S. private and government aid for disaster victims is guided by political motivations; role of mainstream U.S. religions. Efforts of the Reagan administration since 1985 to describe nonmilitary aid to the Nicaraguan contras as "humanitarian."

I have worked with Iraqi colleagues to interview beneficiaries & providers of assistance from all of Iraq's many religious ethnic communities. We find firm evidence of commitment to the humanitarian ethos in Iraq but grave concerns over the modus operandi of many 'humanitarian' operators. There are few systematic efforts to bridge the ethos-practice gap. Adapted from the source document.

In this commentary on Michael Barnett's article Humanitarianism Transformed (this volume), the author argues that the current politicization of humanitarianism offers opportunities as well as constraints. Asserting that the end of the Cold War opened the way for transformative logics, humanitarianism has been evolving to allow explicit consideration of the political. Although the author agrees with Barnett's assessment of increased professionalization & institutionalization of humanitarianism, the broader question of defining the causal sequence of continued dependence on external resources must be addressed. The phenomena of fused politics of solidarity & governance is identified as the determinate of future success by organizations in the next wave of humanitarianism. References. J. Harwell