scholarly journals The humanitarian alibi: an overview and a redefinition

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Bywater
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Direct Component ◽  
Substitution Process

AbstractThis paper explores and illustrates the diverse manifestations of the phenomenon of the ‘humanitarian alibi’, drawing upon historical and contemporary cases of violent conflict in order to identify substitutionary phenomena by governments and international actors. It affirms the existence of substitution process where humanitarian aid intervention substitutes for the prevention and resolution of violent conflict and the protection of civilian populations. The paper argues for expanding the humanitarian alibi, however, to take into account how international aid intervention compensates for both the systemic neglect of conflict related crises and for the systemic harm that exacerbates and perpetuates these crises. It also challenges the suggestion that the humanitarian alibi phenomenon is the product of a bygone era, and finds that the use of aid as a substitute for peacemaking can co-exist alongside the use of aid as a direct component of international intervention.

When There Was No Aid

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah G. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
International Aid ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Global North ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
Governance Institutions ◽  
Civil Order ◽  
Peace And Development

For all of the doubts raised about the effectiveness of international aid in advancing peace and development, there are few examples of developing countries that are even relatively untouched by it. This book offers us one such example. Using evidence from Somaliland’s experience of peace-building, the book challenges two of the most engrained presumptions about violence and poverty in the global South. First, that intervention by actors in the global North is self-evidently useful in ending them, and second that the quality of a country’s governance institutions (whether formal or informal) necessarily determines the level of peace and civil order that the country experiences. The book explores how popular discourses about war, peace, and international intervention structure the conditions of possibility to such a degree that even the inability of institutions to provide reliable security can stabilize a prolonged period of peace. It argues that Somaliland’s post-conflict peace is grounded less in the constraining power of its institutions than in a powerful discourse about the country’s structural, temporal, and physical proximity to war. Through its sensitivity to the ease with which peace gives way to war, the book argues, this discourse has indirectly harnessed an apparent propensity to war as a source of order.

Doing Fieldwork in Areas of International Intervention into Violent and Closed Contexts

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Berit Bliesemann de Guevara ◽  
Morten Bøås
Keyword(s):  
Violent Conflict ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Reflections

This chapter covers experiences of doing fieldwork. It talks about a gender-balanced group of field researchers at different stages of their careers that work in different countries around the world. It also analyzes how the field researchers did their fieldwork in areas of international intervention into violent conflict and/or illiberal states. The chapter provides an overview of the frank and critical accounts of the field researchers who have taken the courage to publicly reflect upon some of their mistakes and to name the dilemmas of fieldwork in violent and closed contexts. It draws attention to the personal reflections of the field researchers' practices, performances, and positionalities in the field, including their contributions to address questions currently discussed in related literatures.

scholarly journals Community Building at the Time of Nargis: The ASEAN Response

2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio Santiag Amador
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Disaster Management ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Slow Response ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Cyclone Nargis

Cyclone Nargis was one of the most powerful disasters to hit Myanmar and Southeast Asia. Myanmar was criticized internationally for its allegedly slow effort in allowing international aid to enter into the country. This paper examines the criticism levelled against the ASEAN for its slow response in providing aid to the beleaguered in Myanmar and relates that criticism to ASEAN's disaster management policy. It focuses on ASEAN's engagement with Myanmar in order to allow humanitarian aid to flow into the country. The paper suggests that in time ASEAN will have to move from its doctrine of non-intervention in the affairs of a sovereign state to one of non-indifference if it wishes to remain relevant. Ultimately, ASEAN will have to re-evaluate its own goals in order to be a more successful apparatus for interstate and regional affairs, especially with respect to humanitarian crises brought about by natural disasters.

The Politics of International Aid to the Gaza Strip

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 32-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamer Qarmout ◽  
Daniel Béland
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
International Aid ◽  
The Political ◽  
Palestinian Authority ◽  
Legislative Council ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The Gaza Strip

International aid to the Palestinian Authority is conditioned in part on democratization and good governance. However, since Hamas's victory in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections and its takeover of the Gaza Strip, aid agencies have supported the international boycott of the Hamas government. This article argues that aid agencies, by operating in Gaza while boycotting its government, subvert their mandates and serve the political interests of donors and the PA rather than the humanitarian and development needs of Gazans. As a consequence, assistance has, inadvertently and unintentionally, increased Gazans' dependence on humanitarian aid, impeded economic development, and enabled Israel to maintain its occupation and the blockade of Gaza.

Mediating among Mediators: Building a Consensus in Multilateral Interventions

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timea Spitka
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Intervention Process

AbstractThe conditions under which multilateral international intervention are effective in ending a violent conflict is a critical question for scholars and practitioners. Scholarly studies have demonstrated the importance of a united intervention but have been in disagreement over the effectiveness of neutral versus partisan intervention. This article examines the conditions under which mediators construct a consensus on the type of intervention process. What are the factors that enable a consensus on a neutral versus a partisan intervention? Distinguishing between four types of international intervention processes – united-neutral, united-partisan, divided-partisan, and divided neutral and partisan intervention – this article argues that it is a united intervention, whether united partisan or united-neutral, that contributes to creating leverage on conflicting parties to end a conflict. The article examines consensus building among mediators within two divergent case studies: Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

scholarly journals AID FOR AFRICA AS ONE OF THE ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY POLISH NGOs: LEGAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH

MEST Journal ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-81
Author(s):  
Marek Stych ◽  
Beata Pawlica ◽  
Malgorzata Kmak
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
International Aid ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The People

This article tackles the issue of aid for African states. Africa is one of the poorest continents, with many people living on the verge of poverty and suffering from malnutrition or famine. Hence, the humanitarian aid provided to the people of this continent is of particular importance. In Poland, such aid activities undertake entities defined in the Polish legal system as non-governmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs also conduct many other kinds of activities. The Act on public benefit and volunteer work is an example of creating legal mechanisms for the functioning of civil society in the legal system to provide international aid to those it needs. Assisting other societies is important for modern civil society the same as political or economic cooperations are. The role of NGOs operating in health protection, education, or entrepreneurship areas is crucially important. The authors of this paper discuss the issue of the said aid provided by selected Polish NGOs. The article aims to determine the extent and scope of the assistance to African countries provided by the NGOs, based on the respondents' experiences, whether such assistance is necessary, and what form it should take.

Evolving Funding Patterns of Global Programmes and Their Impacts on Governance and Operations

2019 ◽  
pp. 508-528
Author(s):  
Daniele Alesani
Keyword(s):  
Capacity Building ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
Programme Implementation ◽  
Performance Accountability

Macro trends in funding international aid programmes are the focus of this chapter which explains how emerging innovative financing mechanisms are contributing to shape the approach to development themes. The chapter then presents the important issue of donor-led performance accountability, in the context of a significant increase in voluntary and earmarked funding, coupled with significant competition for visibility and resources among international organizations. There are implications related to the shift in role of international organizations and the transition to an ‘indirect’ programme implementation modality, based on capacity building of developmental counterparts and cash-based humanitarian assistance. This identity change requires time and the adaptation of skills and business models. Ways forward and areas for further research are identified in relation to the drivers of collaboration and competition among international aid players. This includes increasing funding and programmatic integration between ‘development’ and ‘humanitarian’ aid and for exploiting the potential of public–private collaboration for innovative and sustainable funding for development.

From Humanitarianism to Humanitarianization

2020 ◽  
pp. 138-162
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Aid Workers ◽  
Considerable Time ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Housing Reconstruction

This chapter explains that much of contemporary international intervention takes places under the sign of humanitarianism. One of the most significant undertakings in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina was the massive housing reconstruction projects run by international aid organizations as part of a highly politicized effort to move refugees back to their prewar homes. Alongside the usual technical tasks of such projects, aid workers spent considerable time and effort in their encounters with refugees creating the social and cultural conditions conducive to humanitarian action—a process which can be called humanitarianization. The chapter analyzes these efforts and demonstrates that the humanitarian status of such aid projects was never more than provisionally settled. It argues that this unstable, provisional nature of humanitarian action forms an underexplored dynamic shaping and limiting aid interventions in Bosnia and beyond.

Natural Disasters, Economic Development, and Humanitarian Aid

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Strömberg
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
Societal Factors ◽  
Disaster Victims ◽  
Over Time

Natural disasters are one of the major problems facing humankind. Between 1980 and 2004, two million people were reported killed and five billion people cumulatively affected by around 7,000 natural disasters, according to the dataset maintained by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) at University of Louvain (Belgium). The economic costs are considerable and rising. The direct economic damage from natural disasters between 1980–2004 is estimated at around $1 trillion. This paper starts by describing the incidence of natural disasters, where they strike, and their development over time. It then discusses how societal factors act to protect people from or expose them to natural hazards. The final section discusses the determinants and targets of international aid to disaster victims.

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