Information Warfare and the Role of Global Humanitarians

This chapter expresses concern with the one-sided nature of humanitarian actors’ narratives from Syria, which is promoted by international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) through their large presence in the media. It discusses how these humanitarian actors’ narratives contributed heavily to the growing alienation and intransigence between the opposition and the government, making any meaningful dialogue between them nearly impossible. It also mentions the humanitarian actors’ contribution to the spread of disinformation in the Syrian war due to their presence on only one side of the conflict. The chapter refers to humanitarian actors who continued to defy the constraints on providing assistance by finding ways to deliver aid inside areas under siege and by speaking out against the complete disregard for civilian life and infrastructure by the warring parties. It reviews the history of contemporary humanitarian organizations’ formation, as well as their role and the activities in which they have participated.

Grassroots INGOs in Africa: Perspectives on What They Are (and Are Not?)

This research explores philanthropic transfers and exchanges between and among the North and the South, namely, through grassroots international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), which tend to fall outside of the aid industry. The broad research question that frames this study is as follows: How do these organizations, grassroots INGOs in the global North and their partner organizations in the global South, represent and legitimize their work within the larger realm of development aid in Africa? The research conducts a comparative case study through the analysis of the narratives via organizational stories and artifacts produced and used by grassroots INGOs in the United States and partner organizations in Kenya. The findings show how grassroots INGOs distinguish themselves from what are the traditional images of global philanthropic exchanges and development aid, producing disassociative claims. The research derives a set of properties of grassroots INGOs to explain these perceived distinctions.

Interpreting Khmer Women’s Health

International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) from the U.S. and Japan have a shared aim of improving women’s health yet implement very different programs in Cambodia. The author’s observations and interviews in Tokyo, Washington D.C., and Cambodia suggest that while NGO practitioners in Cambodia can adapt programming to better reflect the concerns of local stakeholders, they have less influence in defining what counts as success.

Unilateral termination of construction contract: comparative analysis of civil Legislation and international contract forms

The subject of this research is the similarities and differences between the contract forms developed by the international nongovernmental organizations for application in the sphere of investment construction activity (contracts terms for engineering, procurement, construction/ for turnkey projects, second edition of 2017, developed by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), framework “turnkey” contract for large projects, first edition of 2007, developed by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)) and the norms of national civil legislation (Parts I and II of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) that regulate unilateral termination of construction contracts. The novelty of this research lies in conducting a comparative analysis of Russian legislation and contract forms developed by the international nongovernmental organizations. The examination of foreign experience in the sphere of legal regulation of termination of contract are based on analysis of the norms of contract law of the national legal systems of foreign countries. However, according to the foreign authors, contract law within the systems of both, general and continental law, was developing in seclusion, without substantial influence of one national system upon another. International influence upon the national contract law emerged relatively recently in the sphere of foreign economic activity. At the same time, the key factor for mutual enrichment of the national systems of contract law became the use of international contract forms, which contributed to the unification of contractual regulation of the relations of obligation in national jurisdictions. Their influence upon the development of contract law was far more substantial than even the development of international conventions with substantive law regulations.

International NGOs in Global Aid Chains

Much of the research on international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) emphasizes their role as transnational actors on a global scale, but INGOs also have a national dimension—they originate in home countries, and they carry out activities in host or recipient countries. How can we understand the way they are shaped by and operate across these multiple contexts? This paper examines differences between U.S.-based, Japanese, and South Korean INGOs in Cambodia. Specifically, we analyze interorganizational relationships between INGOs and their donors and local partners, which we conceptualize as “aid chains.” This comparative analysis of aid chains provides insight into the dynamics that produce patterned variation in the development field.