Humanitarianism, War, and Politics

Humanitarianism, War, and Politics PDF

Author: Peter J. Hoffman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-06-27

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 1442266147

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What is humanitarianism? This authoritative book provides a comprehensive analysis of the original idea and its evolution, exploring its triangulation with war and politics. Peter J. Hoffman and Thomas G. Weiss trace the origins of humanitarianism, its social movement, and the institutions (international humanitarian law) and organizations (providers of assistance and protection) that comprise it. They consider the international humanitarian system’s ability to regulate the conduct of war, to improve the wellbeing of its victims, and to prosecute war criminals. Probing the profound changes in the culture and capacities that underpin the sector and alter the meaning of humanitarianism, they assess the reinventions that constitute “revolutions in humanitarian affairs.” The book begins with traditions and perspectives—ranging from classic international relations approaches to “Critical Humanitarian Studies” —and reviews seminal wartime emergencies and the creation and development of humanitarian agencies in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The authors then examine the rise of “new humanitarianisms” after the Cold War’s end and contemporary cases after 9/11. The authors continue by unpacking the most recent “revolutions”—the International Criminal Court and the “Responsibility to Protect”—as well as such core challenges as displacement camps, infectious diseases, eco-refugees, and marketization. They conclude by evaluating the contemporary system and the prospects for further transformations, identifying scholarly puzzles and the acute operational problems faced by practitioners.

Humanitarianism, War, and Politics

Humanitarianism, War, and Politics PDF

Author: Peter Joshua Hoffman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9781442266124

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This authoritative book provides a comprehensive analysis of the original idea of humanitarianism and its evolution, exploring its triangulation with war and politics. Tracing the profound changes in the culture and capacities that underpin the sector, the authors assess the reinventions that constitute "revolutions in humanitarian affairs."

Humanitarianism in Question

Humanitarianism in Question PDF

Author: Michael Barnett

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2012-05-15

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0801465087

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Years of tremendous growth in response to complex emergencies have left a mark on the humanitarian sector. Various matters that once seemed settled are now subjects of intense debate. What is humanitarianism? Is it limited to the provision of relief to victims of conflict, or does it include broader objectives such as human rights, democracy promotion, development, and peacebuilding? For much of the last century, the principles of humanitarianism were guided by neutrality, impartiality, and independence. More recently, some humanitarian organizations have begun to relax these tenets. The recognition that humanitarian action can lead to negative consequences has forced humanitarian organizations to measure their effectiveness, to reflect on their ethical positions, and to consider not only the values that motivate their actions but also the consequences of those actions. In the indispensable Humanitarianism in Question, Michael Barnett and Thomas G. Weiss bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines to address the humanitarian identity crisis, including humanitarianism's relationship to accountability, great powers, privatization and corporate philanthropy, warlords, and the ethical evaluations that inform life-and-death decision making during and after emergencies.

Humanitarianism: Keywords

Humanitarianism: Keywords PDF

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-09-07

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9004431144

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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.

Waging Humanitarian War

Waging Humanitarian War PDF

Author: Eric A. Heinze

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2009-01-22

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 0791477088

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How severe must human suffering be before military intervention is considered? Can there be commensurate legal grounding for such an argument? Which actors are the most appropriate agents of intervention? In this reasonable and straightforward approach to the perplexing issue of humanitarian intervention, Eric A. Heinze incorporates insights from various strands of ethical, legal, and international relations theory. He identifies the conditions under which humanitarian intervention is morally permissible, establishes the extent to which such an ethical argument can be grounded in international law, and determines which actors are best equipped to undertake this task under prevailing political conditions. Heinze presents the reader with a number of empirical examples, including the 1999 Kosovo intervention, the 2003 Iraq war, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan. The result is a more theoretically consistent—and therefore more practically workable—approach to humanitarian intervention.

In the Shadow of 'just Wars'

In the Shadow of 'just Wars' PDF

Author: Médecins sans frontières (Association)

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 9780801489112

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Essays written by scholars, journalists and humanitarian relief workers look at humanitarian crises of the past five years for their successes and failures, and suggest that humanitarian action has often failed to live up to its ideals. These essays expose the shortcomings of the various humanitarian organizations, particularly the U.N., and illuminate the complex moral and political debate that surrounds even the most basic relief operations.

Contemporary States of Emergency

Contemporary States of Emergency PDF

Author: Didier Fassin

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781935408017

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The new form of "humanitarian government" emerging from natural disasters and military occupations that reduces people to mere lives to be rescued. From natural disaster areas to zones of political conflict around the world, a new logic of intervention combines military action and humanitarian aid, conflates moral imperatives and political arguments, and confuses the concepts of legitimacy and legality. The mandate to protect human lives--however and wherever endangered--has given rise to a new form of humanitarian government that moves from one crisis to the next, applying the same battery of technical expertise (from military logistics to epidemiological risk management to the latest social scientific tools for "good governance") and reducing people with particular histories and hopes to mere lives to be rescued. This book explores these contemporary states of emergency. Drawing on the critical insights of anthropologists, legal scholars, political scientists, and practitioners from the field, Contemporary States of Emergency examines historical antecedents as well as the moral, juridical, ideological, and economic conditions that have made military and humanitarian interventions common today. It addresses the practical process of intervention in global situations on five continents, describing both differences and similarities, and examines the moral and political consequences of these generalized states of emergency and the new form of government associated with them.

Forces of Compassion

Forces of Compassion PDF

Author: Erica Bornstein

Publisher: School for Advanced Research on the

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9781934691403

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The surrealism of imagining contemporary humanitarian techniques applied to historical events indicates more than dramatic technological transformation; it also suggests limits to contemporary assumptions about common human feeling and associated action.

Everybody's War

Everybody's War PDF

Author: Jehan Bseiso

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0197514642

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"In February 2012, in its first public position on the unfolding armed conflict in Syria, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) published a series of testimonies gathered from Syrian doctors working in the country. The testimonies described the challenges and horrors facing doctors trying to treat wounded patients and protesters injured by Syrian authorities (MSF 2012). In its report, MSF denounced the use of "medicine as a weapon of persecution" in Syria and called on the government to "re-establish the neutrality of healthcare facilities" (Ibid.) In a press release published a year later, MSF further decried that aid was not being distributed "equally" between government- and opposition-controlled areas and argued that "areas under government control receive nearly all international aid, while opposition-held zones receive only a tiny share." (MSF 2013) In an opinion piece, two MSF staff members criticized humanitarian actors working with the authorization of the Syrian government and called on those aid agencies to recognise "the de-facto partitioning of the state" (Weissman and Rodrigue 2013). Such calls from humanitarian actors, which on other occasions claimed neutrality, played into the polarization of the Syrian conflict. The Syrian government actively controlled aid delivery and distribution from Damascus, with the support of Russia and Iran. Aid from Damascus was distributed by the United Nations, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent society, and a handful of other organizations working in government-controlled areas. Meanwhile, aid was delivered across the borders from neighboring countries by opposition groups, civil society activists, and Western humanitarian actors"--