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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."

THE CONTEMPORARY REALITY IS FULL OF PARADOXES - OF OVERPRODUCTION AND SCARCITY, OF INFORMATION EXPLOSION AND INCREASING IGNORANCE, OF POLIFERATION OF COMMODITIES AND SHRINKAGE IN NATURE'S DIVERSITY, OF AFFLUENCE AND POVERTY, OF LIBERALIZATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION, OF STATES THAT ARE AT ONCE TOO STRONG AND TOO VULNERABLE. ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE AND CULTURAL DESTRUCTION ARE CENTRAL TO CONTEMPORARY CHANGE. IN CASES OF EXTREME TENSION, THESE PARADOXICAL SITUATIONS THREATEN THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF PEOPLE'S LIVES AS WELL AS THE PLANET ITSELF. ECOCIDE AND ETHNOCIDE ARE NO LONGER IMAGINARY SCENARIOS CREATED BY DOOMSDAY PROPHETS. THEY ARE HAPPENING; THEY ARE REAL. TOGETHER WITH MILITARIZATION, THEY CONSTITUTE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE AND THREAT FACED BY THE WORLD TODAY.

A discussion of international humanitarian law, defined as the principles & rules that regulate hostilities in order to attenuate their hardships. The law combines two ideas of a different nature, one legal & the other moral, which may explain the apparent paradoxes it raises. The evolution of humanitarian thought is traced through the ages, as are the attitudes of states; history & politics have determined the uneasy but progressive codification of humanitarian norms. So-called "military necessity" is considered, which may be at the origin of limitations, if not gaps, in the development & implementation of humanitarian law. However, because it is also indebted to superior principles derived from established custom, principles of humanity, & the dictates of public conscience, humanitarian law has acquired specificities that make it universal & obligatory. If humanitarian law is concluded by states, its real aim is the protection of the individual. 20 References. Modified HA