| Kommentar |
This seminar provides a critical introduction to humanitarian aid as one major field of crisis management. Humanitarian aid is about the delivery of support to civilians afflicted by wars and disasters. Together with refugee and development aid, which is the more long-term, structural approach of foreign aid, it has become a major pillar of the aid industry, which involves today thousands of aid organizations, ranging from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) to the World Food Program (WFP), as well as governments and private citizens. While never was more spent to send food, medicine or water treatment equipment after earthquakes, floods or during wars such as currently in Ukraine (‘new humanitarianism’), humanitarian aid has come under close scrutiny. Why does so little of the money we spend reach those in need? Why is aid so unevenly distributed across crises, with some receiving almost all of our attention while others do not even receive the minimum? Should we always be neutral when distributing aid in conflict scenarios, even when one conflict party commits atrocious crimes or misuses aid for military purposes? Should we keep quiet in order not to lose access to the victims? Why is coordination so poor among donors, aid organizations and recipients and how can we alleviate disastrous effects on the aid recipients? How can we better protect aid workers on the ground who are increasingly targeted by rebel groups and security forces alike? These questions demonstrate how closely humanitarian aid is linked to politics, in particular crisis management, and that we face many ethical dilemmas when delivering aid.
In the seminar we will first conceptualize humanitarian aid and look at the history of aid: its origins in the 19th century and the role of Henri Dunant as the founder of the ICRC, its evolution during the Cold War crises and its expansion since the 1990s. Afterwards, we take a closer look at the basic norms of humanitarian aid, in particular impartiality, neutrality and independence, and debate major critiques by looking at three cases: the ICRC and its strict understanding of neutrality vis-à-vis the Nazi concentration camps; the turn towards advocacy by Doctors Without Frontiers after the Biafra war of the 1960s; and the politization of humanitarian aid in the Syrian war. Subsequently, we try to understand the distinct and often contradictory motives and interests of the major humanitarian actors (states, aid organizations and recipients) and discuss the systemic challenges of coordinating aid. Finally, we explore the crisis of humanitarian aid itself, in particular the challenge of aid diversion to authoritarian regimes and rebels questions, post-colonial paternalism and the call for localization of aid, and proposals of how to improve aid effectiveness. |
| Literatur |
- Barnett, Michael (ed., 2017), Paternalism Beyond Borders, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Ibid. (2011), Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
- Bornstein, Erica and Redfield, Peter (2011), Forces of Compassion: Humanitarianism Between Ethics and Politics, School of Advanced Research Press.
- Keen, David (2008), Complex Emergencies, Malden, MA: Polity Press (bes. Kap. 5 und 6).
- Mac Ginty, Roger und Peterson, Jenny H. (eds., 2015), The Routledge Companion to Humanitarian Action, London: Routledge.
- Moorehead, Caroline (1999), Dunant’s Dream. War, Switzerland and the History of the Red Cross, London: Harper Collins Publisher.
- Riddell, Roger C. (2008), Does Foreign Aid Really Work? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Slim, Hugo (), Humanitarian Ethics. A Guide to the Morality of Aid in War and Disaster, London: Hurst & Company.
Further links: Reliefweb (https://reliefweb.int/), Blog “Humanitarianism and Human Rights (https://hhr.hypotheses.org/), Blog “Humanitarian Law & Policy” by Hugo Slim (https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/contributor/hugo-slim/)
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