Sovereignty, Democracy and Neutrality: French Foreign Policy and the National-Patriotic Humanitarianism of the French Red Cross, 1919–1928

Recent historiography pertaining to the International Red Cross has generally emphasised the transnational scale as best suited for analysing this global movement. Using the French Red Cross as a case study, this article suggests that focusing on the national scale, or even on the national-imperial scale, does not exclude transnational approaches but enriches them. In doing so, it highlights the dialectic between scales of humanitarian activity and complicates our understanding of the Red Cross movement in the early twentieth century. The article examines how the French Red Cross strived for its independence within the broader Red Cross world in a postwar humanitarian context increasingly dominated by transnational organisations. It also argues that in the 1920s the French Red Cross, a traditional auxiliary of the French army, became an arm of the French Foreign Office, advancing French diplomacy and sovereignty.

The Impact of the Online COVID-19 Infodemic on French Red Cross Actors’ Field Engagement and Protective Behaviors: Mixed Methods Study

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has been widely described as an infodemic, an excess of rapidly circulating information in social and traditional media in which some information may be erroneous, contradictory, or inaccurate. One key theme cutting across many infodemic analyses is that it stymies users’ capacities to identify appropriate information and guidelines, encourages them to take inappropriate or even harmful actions, and should be managed through multiple transdisciplinary approaches. Yet, investigations demonstrating how the COVID-19 information ecosystem influences complex public decision making and behavior offline are relatively few. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whether information reported through the social media channel Twitter, linked articles and websites, and selected traditional media affected the risk perception, engagement in field activities, and protective behaviors of French Red Cross (FRC) volunteers and health workers in the Paris region of France from June to October 2020. Methods We used a hybrid approach that blended online and offline data. We tracked daily Twitter discussions and selected traditional media in France for 7 months, qualitatively evaluating COVID-19 claims and debates about nonpharmaceutical protective measures. We conducted 24 semistructured interviews with FRC workers and volunteers. Results Social and traditional media debates about viral risks and nonpharmaceutical interventions fanned anxieties among FRC volunteers and workers. Decisions to continue conducting FRC field activities and daily protective practices were also influenced by other factors unrelated to the infodemic: familial and social obligations, gender expectations, financial pressures, FRC rules and communications, state regulations, and relationships with coworkers. Some respondents developed strategies for “tuning out” social and traditional media. Conclusions This study suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the information ecosystem may be just one among multiple influences on one group’s offline perceptions and behavior. Measures to address users who have disengaged from online sources of health information and who rely on social relationships to obtain information are needed. Tuning out can potentially lead to less informed decision making, leading to worse health outcomes.

Impact of the online COVID-19 infodemic on French Red Cross actors’ field engagement and protective behaviors: A hybrid social listening study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has been widely described as an “infodemic”, an excess of information alimented by social and traditional media. In identifying problematic narratives and measuring their online spread, one key thematic cutting across many such analyses is that it is a threat to be managed through effective emergency risk communication. It nevertheless remains challenging to identify precisely how social media debates affect complex public decision-making and behavior offline. OBJECTIVE This study investigated whether information reported through the widely-used social media channel Twitter, linked articles and websites, and selected traditional media affected the risk perception, engagement in field activities, and protective behaviors of French Red Cross volunteers and health workers in the Paris region of France during the COVID-19 epidemic. METHODS We tracked daily Twitter discussions and selected traditional media in France for seven months, identifying COVID-19 claims and debates about viral origins, non-pharmaceutical protection measures, and potential treatments and vaccines. We conducted 24 semi-structured interviews with workers and volunteers. RESULTS Media and social media debates about viral risks, epidemiological measures, non-pharmaceutical interventions, potential treatments and vaccines did fan anxieties among FRC volunteers and workers. Nevertheless, decisions to continue conducting FRC field activities and daily protection practices conjugated with other proximate factors. In addition, some respondents developed strategies for “tuning out” the influence of social and traditional medias. CONCLUSIONS This study, employing two distinct datasets, suggests complex interactions between an online COVID-19 infodemic and offline perceptions and behavior. Respondents in semi-structured interviews expressed anxieties about the sheer quantities of information they received, contradictory and at times deliberately provocative or speculative. Their decisions to participate in FRC field activities and daily protective measures, however, were guided not only by the infodemic, but by several other factors. Further investigation and better theorization of how social and occupational groups interpret and act on contradictory information is needed. CLINICALTRIAL Not applicable

Evaluating the motivation of Red Cross Health volunteers in the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods study protocol

IntroductionVoluntary organisations provide essential support to vulnerable populations and front-line health responders to the COVID-19 pandemic. The French Red Cross (FRC) is prominent among organisations offering health and support services in the current crisis. Comprised primarily of lay volunteers and some trained health workers, FRC volunteers in the Paris (France) region have faced challenges in adapting to pandemic conditions, working with sick and vulnerable populations, managing limited resources and coping with high demand for their services. Existing studies of volunteers focus on individual, social and organisational determinants of motivation, but attend less to contextual ones. Public health incertitude about the COVID-19 pandemic is an important feature of this pandemic. Whether and how uncertainty interacts with volunteer understandings and experiences of their work and organisational relations to contribute to Red Cross worker motivation is the focus of this investigation.Methods and analysisThis mixed-methods study will investigate volunteer motivation using ethnographic methods and social network listening. Semi-structured interviews and observations will illuminate FRC volunteer work relations, experiences and concerns during the pandemic. A questionnaire targeting a sample of Paris region volunteers will allow quantification of motivation. These findings will iteratively shape and be influenced by a social media (Twitter) analysis of biomedical and public health uncertainties and debates around COVID-19. These tweets provide insight into a French lay public’s interpretations of these debates. We evaluate whether and how socio-political conditions and discourses concerning COVID-19 interact with volunteer experiences, working conditions and organisational relations to influence volunteer motivation. Data collection began on 15 June 2020 and will continue until 15 April 2021.Ethics and disseminationThe protocol has received ethical approval from the Institut Pasteur Institutional Review Board (no 2020-03). We will disseminate findings through peer-reviewed articles, conference presentations and recommendations to the FRC.

Application of a Decision Model by Using an Integration of AHP and TOPSIS Approaches within Humanitarian Operation Life Cycle

Emergency logistics is one of the most important parts of disaster relief operations. Quick and adequate decision making in this sector is vital but sometimes hard to achieve. This issue is currently faced by several humanitarian organizations, where the high turnover of staff and the lack of adequate tools make it hard to learn from past experiences. Choosing the most appropriate supplier, the adapted warehouse and transportation means is a complicated task. Indeed, on the one hand there are many criteria to take into account in the decision-making process, and on the other hand the relative importance of those criteria is changing over time. Existing academic works on this issue are very difficult to implement on real case scenarios as they do not propose practical solutions. In this paper, a decision model which evolves over time, depending on operations progresses is proposed. Selection of supplier, warehouse and vehicle are taken into consideration thanks to the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach. In order to achieve a proper decision, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used first to analyze the structure of alternatives selection problem and to determine weights of criteria. Then Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is used to obtain final ranking in a four-phases of humanitarian operation life cycle. A numerical example based on preliminary data from the French Red Cross including the sensitivity analysis is presented to clarify and validate the methodology.