Suchergebnisse

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

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.

This contribution describes the speaker's experiences working with World Vision International (WVI). It demonstrates the power of cooperative efforts in the partnership between WVI, the World Health Organization (WHO), World Food Programme (WFP), and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), along with localized NGOs. Through the relation of poignant anecdotes from the speaker's background, it demonstrates the potential for strategic alliances to build mutually supportive relationships between agencies. The contribution asserts that through the cooperation and coordination of international humanitarian organizations and NGOs, it will be possible to make the mechanisms for aid distribution at the local level operational. Finally, the article calls for a revitalized effort to develop new ways to lay the foundation for humanitarian partnerships and reconciliation of suffering and alienated populations. W. A. Butler

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

ABSTRACTHumanitarianism – that is, the political, economic and military interference in the domestic affairs of a state justified by a nascent transnational morality – is one of the defining and most controversial features of the post-Cold War period. This article advances nine theses, arguing that humanitarianism has a simplistic worldview, that coercive humanitarian actions trigger negative consequences, that humanitarianism is quite effective in sheltering Western states from the spillover effects of political crises but is less so in solving the problems it claims to address. These arguments are illustrated with reference to four prominent cases: Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda and Darfur. The article concludes with a brief outline of an alternative humanitarian approach.