Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T16:36:30.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Humanitarianism Transformed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2005

Michael Barnett
Affiliation:
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota ([email protected])

Abstract

The scale, scope, and significance of humanitarian action have expanded significantly since the late 1980s. This article reflects on two ways in which humanitarianism has been transformed. First, its purpose has been politicized. Whereas once humanitarian actors attempted to insulate themselves from the world of politics, they now work closely with states and attempt to eliminate the root causes of conflict that place individuals at risk. Second, a field of humanitarianism has become institutionalized; during the 1990s the field and its agencies became more professionalized and rationalized. Drawing on various strands of organizational theory, I examine the forces that have contributed to these transformations. I then explore how these transformations have changed the nature of what humanitarian organizations are and what they do. In the conclusion I consider how the transformation of humanitarianism links to the relationship between international nongovernmental organizations and world order, including the purpose of humanitarian action and its distinctive function in global politics.Michael Barnett is Harold Stassen Chair of International Relations at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and professor of political science at the University of Minnesota ([email protected]). In 2004–5 he was a visiting associate at the Center on International Cooperation at the Center on International Cooperation. The author thanks Bud Duvall, Kevin Hartigan, Martha Finnemore, Abby Stoddard, Ron Kassimir, Craig Calhoun, Jack Snyder, Adele Harmer, the participants of the Minnesota International Relations Colloquium, and three anonymous reviewers for Perspectives on Politics for their comments and corrections. Special thanks to the Social Sciences Research Council and the participants in its series on “The Transformation of Humanitarian Action.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2005 American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, Kenneth, and Duncan Snidal. 1998. Why states act through formal international organizations. Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (1): 332.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kenneth. 2004. Humanitarian inviolability in crisis: The meaning of impartiality and neutrality for U.N. and NGO agencies following the 2003–2004 Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. Harvard Human Rights Journal 17 (Spring): 4174.Google Scholar
Anderson, Mary. 1996. Do no harm: Supporting local capacities for peace through aid. Cambridge, MA: Collaborative for Development Action.
Barnett, Michael. 2001. Humanitarianism with a sovereign face: UNHCR in the global undertow. International Migration Review 35 (1): 24477.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael, and Martha Finnemore. 2004. Rules for the world: International organizations in global politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Beitz, Charles. 1994. Cosmopolitan liberalism and the states system. In Political restructuring in Europe: Ethical perspectives, ed. Chris Brown, 12336. London: Routledge.
Bendor, Jonathan, Ami Glazer, and Timothy Hammond. 2001. Theories of delegation. Annual Review of Political Science 4:23569.Google Scholar
Beetham, David. 1985. Max Weber and the theory of modern politics. New York: Polity.
Blondel, Jean. 2000. Is humanitarian action everybody's affair? Reflections on an overworked concept. International Review of the Red Cross 838: 32737.Google Scholar
Boli, John, and George Thomas, eds. 1999. Constructing world culture: International nongovernmental organizations since 1875. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Bouchet-Saulnier, Francoise. 2000. Between humanitarian law and principles: The principles and practices of “rebellious humanitarianism.” MSF International Activity Report. http://www.msf.org.
Bradol, Jean-Herve. 2004. The sacrificial international order and humanitarian action. In In the shadow of “just wars”: Violence, politics, and humanitarian action, ed. Fabrice Weissman, 122. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Brauman, Rony. 2004. From philanthropy to humanitarianism: Remarks and an interview. South Atlantic Quarterly 103 (2/3): 397417.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Craig. 2004. A world of emergencies: Fear, intervention, and the limits of cosmopolitan order. Lecture at University of Southern California.
Chandler, David. 2002. From Kosovo to Kabul. London: Pluto Press.
Chimni, B.S. 1993. The meaning of words and the role of UNHCR in voluntary repatriation. International Journal of Refugee Law 5 (3): 44260.Google Scholar
Coles, Gervase. 1989. Solutions to the problems of refugees and protection of refugees: A background study. Prepared for the Round Table on Durable Solutions and the Protection of Refugees, Convened by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Cooley, Alex, and James Ron. 2002. The NGO scramble. International Security 27 (1): 539.Google Scholar
Cutts, Mark. 1998. Politics and humanitarianism. Refugee Survey Quarterly 17 (1): 115.Google Scholar
Darcy, James. 2005. Acts of faith? Thoughts on the effectiveness of humanitarian action. Available at http://www.ssrc.org/programs/emergencies/publications/Darcy.pdf.
De Waal, Alex. 1997. Famine crimes: Politics and the disaster relief industry in Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
DiMaggio, Paul, and Walter Powell. 1983. “The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields.” American Sociological Review 48, 14760.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J., and Walter W. Powell, eds. 1991. The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Donini, Antonio. 2004. The future of humanitarian action: Implications of Iraq and other recent crises. Medford, MA: Tufts University, Feinstein International Famine Center.
Donini, Antonio. 2005. Humanitarianism in the 00s: Is universality under threat? Paper presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the International Studies Association.
Douglas, Mary. 2002. Purity and danger: An analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo. New York: Routledge.
Duffield, Mark. 2001a. Global governance and the new wars: The merging of development and security. New York: Zed Press.
Duffield, Mark. 2001b. Governing the borderlands: Decoding the power of aid. Disasters 25 (4): 30820.Google Scholar
Duffield, Mark, Joanna Macrae, and Devon Curtis. 2001. Politics and humanitarian aid. Disasters 25 (4): 26974.Google Scholar
Edkins, Jennifer. 1996. Whose hunger? Concepts of famine, practices of aid. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Fearon, James. 2004. Measuring humanitarian impact. Unpublished manuscript.
Feinstein International Famine Center. 2004. Ambiguity and change: Humanitarian NGOs prepare for the future. Medford, MA: Tufts University, Feinstein International Famine Center.
Finnemore, Martha. 1996. Constructing norms of humanitarian intervention. In The culture of national security, ed. Peter Katzenstein, 15385. New York: Columbia University Press.
Fisher, William. 1997. Doing good? The politics and antipolitics of NGO practices. Annual Review of Anthropology 26:439n.64.Google Scholar
Forsythe, David P. 2005. The humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross. NY: Cambridge University Press.
Fox, Fiona. 2001. New humanitarianism: Does it provide a moral banner for the 21st century? Disasters 25 (4): 27589.Google Scholar
Gasper, Desmond R. 1999. “Drawing a line”: Ethical and political strategies in complex emergency assistance. European Journal of Development Research 11 (2): 87114.Google Scholar
Gostelow, Lola. 1999. The Sphere Project: The implications of making humanitarian principles and codes work. Disasters 23 (4): 31625.Google Scholar
Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri. 2001. Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Harmer, Adele, Lin Cotterrell, and Abby Stoddard. 2004. From Stockholm to Ottawa: A progress review of the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative. HPG Research Briefing 18. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Harrell-Bond, Barbara. 2002. Can humanitarian work with refugees be humane? Human Rights Quarterly 24 (1): 5185.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Darren, David Lake, Daniel Nielson, and Michael Tierney, eds. 2005. Delegation under anarchy: States, international organizations, and principal-agent theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holzgrefe, J. L., and Robert Keohane, eds. 2003. Humanitarian intervention. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hopgood, Stephen. Forthcoming. Keepers of the flame. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Howard, Michael. 1993. The historical development of the UN's role in international security. In United Nations, divided world: The UN's roles in international relations, ed. Adam Roberts and Benedict Kingsbury, 6380. New York: Oxford University Press.
Humanitarian Policy Group. 2004. Measuring the impact of humanitarian aid: A review of current practice. HPG Research Report 17. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Hutchinson, John F. 1996. Champions of charity: War and the rise of the Red Cross. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
International Commission on Intervention, and State Sovereignty. 2001. The responsibility to protect. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre.
International Conference of the Red Cross, and Red Crescent. 1995. The code of conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement and NGOs in disaster relief. Adopted at the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva, Switzerland, December 3–7.
Jackson, Robert. 1990. Quasi-states. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Jeffreys, Anna. 2002. Giving voice to silent emergencies. Humanitarian Exchange 20:24.Google Scholar
Keck, Margaret, and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists beyond borders. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Kelly, Charles. 1998. On the relief-to-development continuum. Disasters 22 (2): 17475.Google Scholar
Kennedy, David. 2004. The dark side of virtue: International humanitarianism reassessed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lang, Anthony, ed. 2003. Just intervention. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.
Larson, Magali Sarfatti. 1977. The rise of professionalism: A sociological analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Leader, Nicholas. 2000. The politics of principle: The principles of humanitarian action in practice. Humanitarian Policy Group Report 2. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Leader, Nicholas. 1999. Codes of conduct: Who needs them? Relief and Rehabilitation Network Newsletter 13: 14.Google Scholar
Leader, Nicholas. 1998. Proliferating principles: Or how to sup with the devil without getting eaten. Disasters 22 (4): 288308.Google Scholar
Leader, Nicholas, and Joanne Macrae, eds. 2000. Terms of engagement: Conditions and conditionality in humanitarian action. Humanitarian Policy Group Report 6. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Lindenberg, Marc, and Coralie Bryant. 2001. Going global: Transforming relief and development NGOs. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Books.
Linklater, Andrew. 1998. The transformation of political community. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Loescher, Gil. 2001. The UNHCR and world politics: A perilous path. New York: Oxford University Press.
Macrae, Joanna. 1998. Death of humanitarianism?: An anatomy of the attack. Disasters 22 (4): 30917.Google Scholar
Macrae, Joanna. 1999. Aiding peace … and war: UNHCR returnee reintegration and the relief-development debate. New Issues in Refugee Research, UNHCR Working Paper no. 14, December.
Macrae, Joanna, et al. 2002. Uncertain power: The changing role of official donors in humanitarian action. Humanitarian Policy Group Report 12. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Macrae, Joanna, ed. 2002. The new humanitarianisms: A review of trends in global humanitarian action. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Malkki, Liisa. 1995. Refugees and exile: From “refugee studies” to the national order of things. Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 495523.Google Scholar
McFarlane, Neil, and Thomas Weiss. 2000. Political interests and humanitarian action. Security Studies 10 (1): 12052.Google Scholar
Meyer, John, and Brian Rowan. 1977. Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology 83 (2): 34063.Google Scholar
Meyer, John, and W. Richard Scott. 1983. Organizational environments: Ritual and rationality. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Minear, Larry. 1999. The theory and practice of neutrality: Some thoughts on the tensions. International Review of the Red Cross 833.Google Scholar
Minear, Larry. 2002. The humanitarian enterprise: Dilemmas and discoveries. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.
Mitchell, John. 2003. Accountability: The three lane highway. Humanitarian Exchange 24:25.Google Scholar
Moore, Jonathan. 1999. The humanitarian–development gap. International Review of the Red Cross 833: 1037.Google Scholar
Natsios, Andrew. 2003. NGOs must show results; Promote U.S. or we will “find new partners.” Available at http://www.interaction.org/forum2003/panels.html#Natsios.
Nielson, Daniel, and Michael Tierney. 2003. Delegation to international organizations: Agency theory and World Bank environmental reform. International Organization 57 (2): 24176.Google Scholar
Nyers, Peter. 1999. Emergency or emerging identities? Refugees and transformations in world order. Millennium 28 (1): 126.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Paul. 2002. Benefits-harms analysis: A rights-based tool developed by CARE International. Humanitarian Exchange 20:2931.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Paul. 2004. Politicized humanitarianism: A response to Nicolas de Torrente. Harvard Human Rights Journal 17:139.Google Scholar
Orru, Marco, Nicole Woolsey Biggart, and Gary Hamilton. 1991. Organizational isomorphism in East Asia. In The new institutionalism in organizational analysis, ed. Walter W. Powell and Paul J. DiMaggio, 36189. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Oxley, Marcus. 2001. Measuring humanitarian need. Humanitarian Exchange 19:2931.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, Jeffrey, and Gerald Salancik. 2003. The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Pictet, Jean. 1979. The fundamental principles of the Red Cross. Geneva: Henry Dunant Institute.
Porter, Toby. 2002. An embarrassment of riches. Humanitarian Exchange 21:24.Google Scholar
Ramsbotham, Oliver, and Tom Woodhouse. 1996. Humanitarian intervention in contemporary conflict. New York: Polity Press.
Randel, Judith, and Tony German. 2002. Trends in the financing of humanitarian assistance. In The new humanitarianism: A review of trends in global humanitarian action, ed. Joanne Macrae, 1928. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Rieff, David. 1999. Moral imperatives and political realities. Ethics and International Affairs 13:3542.Google Scholar
Rieff, David. 2002. A bed for the night: humanitarianism in crisis. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Risse, Thomas, Steven Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink, eds. 1999. The power of human rights. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ritzer, George. 1975. Professionalization, bureaucratization, and rationalization: The views of Max Weber. Social Forces 53 (4): 62734.Google Scholar
Roberts, Adam. 1999. The role of humanitarian issues in international politics in the 1990s. International Review of the Red Cross 833: 1942.Google Scholar
Scott, W. Richard. 1987. The adolescence of institutional theory. Administrative Studies Quarterly 32 (4): 493511.Google Scholar
Scott, W. Richard. 1995. Institutions and organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Slim, Hugo. 1997. Doing the right thing: Relief agencies, moral dilemmas, and moral responsibility in political emergencies and war. Disasters 21 (3): 24457.Google Scholar
Slim, Hugo. 2002a. By what authority? The legitimacy and accountability of non-governmental organisations. Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, March 10. http://www.jha.ac/articles/a082.htm.Google Scholar
Slim, Hugo. 2002b. Claiming a humanitarian imperative: NGOs and the cultivation of humanitarian duty. Paper presented at the 7th Annual Conference of Webster University on Humanitarian Values for the Twenty-First Century, Geneva, February 21–22.
Slim, Hugo. 2002c. Military intervention as a means of protecting human rights. Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, March 11. http://www.jha.ac/articles/a084.htm.Google Scholar
Slim, Hugo. 2004a. Protecting civilians: Putting the individual at the humanitarian centre. In The humanitarian decade: Challenges for humanitarian assistance in the last decade and into the future>. Vol. 2. Ed. Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Assistance, 15469. New York: United Nations Press.
Slim, Hugo. 2004b. Politicizing humanitarian action according to need. Presentation to the 2nd International Meeting on Good Humanitarian Donorship, Ottawa, October 21–22.
Smillie, Ian, and Larry Minear. 2004. The charity of nations. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.
Sommaruga, Cornelio. 1999. Humanity: Our priority now and always. Ethics and International Affairs 13:2328.Google Scholar
SPHERE Project. 2000. Humanitarian charter and minimum standards in disaster response. Oxford: Oxfam Publishing.
Stockton, Nicholas. 2004a. The Changing Nature of humanitarian crises. In The humanitarian decade: Challenges for humanitarian assistance in the last decade and into the future. Vol. 2. Ed. Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Assistance, 1538. New York: United Nations Press.
Stockton, Nicholas. 2004b. Afghanistan, war, aid, and international order. In Nation-building unraveled? Aid, peace, and justice in Afghanistan, ed. Antonio Donini, Norah Niland, and Karin Wermester, 937. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.
Stoddard, Abby. 2002. Trends in US humanitarian policy. In The new humanitarianisms: A review of trends in global humanitarian action, ed. Joanna Macrae, 3950. Humanitarian Policy Group Report 11. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Tanguy, Joelle, and Fiona Terry. 1999. Humanitarian responsibility and committed action. Ethics and International Affairs 13: 2934.Google Scholar
Terry, Fiona. 2002. Condemned to repeat? Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Thatcher, Mark, and Alec Stone Sweet. 2002. Theory and practice of delegation to non-majoritarian institutions. West European Politics 25 (1): 122.Google Scholar
De Torrente, Nicholas. 2004. Humanitarian action under attack: Reflections on the Iraq war. Harvard Human Rights Journal 17 (Spring): 130.Google Scholar
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 1990. Note on international protection. 27 August. Available at http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/excom/opendoc.htm?tbl=EXCOM&id=3ae68c000.
Vaux, Tony. 2001. The selfish altruist. Sterling, VA: Earthscan Publishing.
Warner, Daniel. 1999. The politics of the political/humanitarian divide. International Review of the Red Cross 833:10918.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1947. Theory of social and economic organization. New York: Oxford University Press.
Weiss, Tom. 1999. The humanitarian identity crisis. Ethics and International Affairs 13:142.Google Scholar
Weissman, Fabrice, ed. 2004. In the shadow of “just wars”: Violence, politics, and humanitarian action. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Welch, John, and Nathalie Laidler-Kylander. 2006. The new global brands: Managing non-governmental organizations in the 21st century. United States: Thomson Southwestern.
Wheeler, Nicholas. 2000. Saving strangers. New York: Oxford University Press.
White, N. D. 1993. Keeping the peace. New York: Manchester University Press.
White, Philip. 2000. Complex political emergencies: Grasping contexts, seizing opportunities. Disasters 24 (4): 28890.Google Scholar