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AbstractThis article focuses on humanitarians by studying the interactions between the International Committee of the Red Cross and one of his delegates, George Montandon, between 1919 and 1922. Montandon was charged with a fact-finding mission in Siberia that set the basis for larger repatriation plans on behalf of prisoners of war from the Central Powers. This article explores the nature and circulation of expertise – formal and informal – in connection with Montandon's private and professional life before the mission, during the mission itself and once the mission was over. Being a delegate for the ICRC was not a profession but rather a break from established professions as doctors, military officers and scholars in Switzerland. However, experts associated with the work of the Geneva organisation at the headquarters and at the ground level brought a vast set of skills to international humanitarianism. Through a spectrum of transnational connections and networks, at the end of the First World War the ICRC experienced processes of specialisation and standardisation of tasks which had already started in wartime. This article argues that the impulse towards an increasing professionalisation of humanitarianism 'clashed' with the ambiguities of the ICRC's mandate, on the one hand, and the tensions between the agency of individual relief workers and the institutions they represented, on the other.

Résumé Parmi les nombreuses questions humanitaires que la première guerre mondiale engendra, le sort des prisonniers de guerre et des réfugiés russes fut des plus difficiles. Devant les réticences des gouvernements à s'engager politiquement et financièrement dans la résolution de ces deux questions, le Comité international de la Croix Rouge (CICR) et la Société des Nations (SDN) entreprirent des efforts conjoints afin d'y apporter une solution. Par le biais de l'étude des relations entre le CICR et la SDN pour le rapatriement des prisonniers de guerre et le secours aux réfugiés russes, cet article se propose d'établir les éléments composant la politique humanitaire d'après-guerre ainsi que le rôle grandissant des organisations internationales dans la politique mondiale.

Among the several humanitarian issues which arose after the First World War, the future of war prisoners and Russian refugees was of the utmost difficulty. In the face of the various governments' reluctance to be politically and financially engaged in the solving of those two issues, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the League of Nations (LON) undertook joint efforts. This article studies the relationship of the ICRC and the LON regarding the repatriation of prisoners of war and the relief of Russian refugees. It seeks to shed light on the core elements of post-war humanitarian politics as well as to elucidate the increasing role of international organizations in world politics. Adapted from the source document.

Humanitaire et politique, in medias res : le typhus en Pologne et l'Organisation internationale d'hygiène de la SDN (1919-1923) Le travail de la Commission des épidémies en Pologne fait partie des histoires « heureuses » de la SDN. Cet article comporte deux parties. La première porte sur les acteurs de la politique sanitaire internationale ; la deuxième examine la mise en place de la Commission des épidémies et la naissance de l'Organisation internationale d'hygiène de la SDN. Cet article démontre que l'établissement de la Commission des épidémies de la SDN a été une réponse ad hoc à une urgence humanitaire précise. De plus, la recherche d'une solution à ce problème sanitaire a servi de précédent pour établir les bases et la nature des activités de l'Organisation internationale d'hygiène de la SDN.

In the second half of the nineteenth century a new kind of social and cultural actor came to the fore: the expert. During this period complex processes of modernization, industrialization, urbanization, and nation-building gained pace, particularly in Western Europe and North America. These processes created new forms of specialized expertise that grew in demand and became indispensible in fields like sanitation, incarceration, urban planning, and education. Often the expertise needed stemmed from problems at a local or regional level, but many transcended nation-state borders. Experts helped shape a new transnational sphere by creating communities that crossed borders and languages, sharing knowledge and resources through those new communities, and by participating in special events such as congresses and world fairs