Humanitarian Business

With some 50 million people living under duress and threatened by wars and disasters in 2012, the demand for relief worldwide has reached unprecedented levels. As marketization encroaches on traditional humanitarianism, it seems everything may have a priceÑfrom access and principles, to moral authority and lives.

In his customarily hard-hitting analysis, Thomas G. Used book in Good Condition. Weiss offers penetrating insights into the complexities and challenges of the contemporary humanitarian marketplace. Today’s political economy places aid agencies side-by-side with for-profit businesses, including private military and security companies, in a marketplace that also is linked to global trade networks in illicit arms, natural resources, and drugs.

While belligerents put a price-tag on access to victims, aid agencies pursue branding in a competition for 'scarce' resources relative to the staggering needs. This witch’s brew is simmering in the cauldron of wars that are often protracted and always costly to civilians who are the very targets of violence.

In addition to changing political and military conditions that generate demand for aid, private suppliers have changed too. Humanitarianism is now a multi-billion dollar enterprise, and aid agencies are obliged to respond to a range of economic forces in order to 'stay in business'.


Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action

In condemned to repeat?, terry examines the side-effects of intervention by aid organizations and points out the need to acknowledge the political consequences of the choice to give aid. Humanitarian groups have failed, fiona Terry believes, to face up to the core paradox of their activity: humanitarian action aims to alleviate suffering, but by inadvertently sustaining conflict it potentially prolongs suffering.

. Terry focuses on four historically relevant cases: Rwandan camps in Zaire, Afghan camps in Pakistan, Salvadoran and Nicaraguan camps in Honduras, and Cambodian camps in Thailand. Terry was the head of the french section of Medecins sans frontieres Doctors Without Borders when it withdrew from the Rwandan refugee camps in Zaire because aid intended for refugees actually strengthened those responsible for perpetrating genocide.

The author makes the controversial claim that aid agencies act as though the initial decision to supply aid satisfies any need for ethical discussion and are often blind to the moral quandaries of aid. Condemned to repeat? makes clear that the paradox of aid demands immediate attention by organizations and governments around the world.

This book contains documents from the former Rwandan army and government that were found in the refugee camps after they were attacked in late 1996. This material illustrates how combatants manipulate humanitarian action to their benefit. The author stresses that, if international agencies are to meet the needs of populations in crisis, their organizational behavior must adjust to the wider political and socioeconomic contexts in which aid occurs.

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Digital Humanitarians

Enzo bollettino,  the harvard Humanitarian Initiative,  Executive Director,  Harvard University . Explains the strengths and potential weaknesses of using big data and crowdsourced analytics in crisis situations. It is at once a deeply personal and intellectually satisfying book. Professor steven livingston, professor of media & Public and International Affairs,  Elliott School of International Affairs,  George Washington University Crc press.

This book charts the spectacular rise of Digital Humanitarians, highlighting how their humanity coupled with innovative Big Data solutions is changing humanitarian relief for forever. Praise for the book:. Examines how new uses of technology and vast quantities of digital data are transforming the way societies prepare for, cope with, respond to, and ultimately understand humanitarian disasters.

This new humanitarians mobilize online to make sense of vast volumes of data--social media and text messages; satellite and aerial imagery--in direct support of relief efforts worldwide. Dr. How? they craft ingenious crowdsourcing solutions with trail-blazing insights from artificial intelligence. The overflow of information generated during disasters can be as paralyzing to humanitarian response as the lack of information.

Making sense of this information--Big Data--is proving an impossible challenge for traditional humanitarian organizations, which is precisely why they're turning to Digital Humanitarians.


The Crisis Caravan: What's Wrong with Humanitarian Aid?

Crc press. Impassioned, and even darkly absurd, gripping, journalist Linda Polman "gives some powerful examples of unconscionable assistance. A world where aid workers have become enablers of the atrocities they seek to relieve" The Boston Globe. The crisis caravan takes us to war zones around the globe, showing how aid operations and the humanitarian world have become a feature of military strategy.

In her controversial, no-holds-barred exposé Linda Polman shows how a vast industry has grown up around humanitarian aid.


Shaping the Humanitarian World Global Institutions

Crc press. Providing a critical introduction to the notion of humanitarianism in global politics, tracing the concept from its origins to the twenty-first century, this book examines how the so called international community works in response to humanitarian crises and the systems that bind and divide them.

By tracing the history on international humanitarian action from its early roots through the birth of the Red Cross to the beginning of the UN, Peter Walker and Daniel G. Topics covered include: the rise in humanitarian action as a political tool the growing call for accountability of agencies the switch of NGOs from bit players to major trans-national actors the conflict between political action and humanitarian action when it comes to addressing causes as well as symptoms of crisis.

Maxwell examine the challenges humanitarian agencies face, from working alongside armies and terrorists to witnessing genocide. Routledge. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in international human rights law, disaster management and international relations. They argue that humanitarianism has a vital future, but only if those practicing it choose to make it so.

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Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics Cornell Paperbacks

Weiss, cuny graduate Center Crc press. Various matters that once seemed settled are now subjects of intense debate. Rubenstein, columbia university; janice Gross Stein, Princeton University; Jack Snyder, University of Toronto; Thomas G. Years of tremendous growth in response to complex emergencies have left a mark on the humanitarian sector.

. The recognition that humanitarian action can lead to negative consequences has forced humanitarian organizations to measure their effectiveness, to reflect on their ethical positions, and to consider not only the values that motivate their actions but also the consequences of those actions. In the indispensable Humanitarianism in Question, Michael Barnett and Thomas G.

Used book in Good Condition. Routledge. What is humanitarianism? is it limited to the provision of relief to victims of conflict, or does it include broader objectives such as human rights, the principles of humanitarianism were guided by neutrality, impartiality, development, democracy promotion, and peacebuilding?For much of the last century, and independence.

Fearon, stanford university; Laura Hammond, SOAS, University of London; Peter J. Weiss bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines to address the humanitarian identity crisis, great powers, including humanitarianism's relationship to accountability, warlords, privatization and corporate philanthropy, and the ethical evaluations that inform life-and-death decision making during and after emergencies.

Contributors: michael barnett, University of Minnesota; Craig Calhoun, New York University; James D. Hoffman, university of london; peter redfield, University of North Carolina, Hunter College; Stephen Hopgood, SOAS, Chapel Hill; Jennifer C.


Humanitarian Intervention War and Conflict in the Modern World

A singular development in the post-Cold War era is the use of military force to protect human beings. Drawing on a wide range of case studies and providing a persuasive overview of the theory and practice of humanitarian intervention in the modern world, strategic, he examines its political, ethical, legal, economic, and operational dimensions to highlight key debates and controversies.

Crc press. But what about syria? why have we observed the syrian slaughter and done nothing? Is humanitarian intervention in crisis? Is the so-called responsibility to protect dead or alive? In this fully revised and expanded third edition of his highly accessible and popular text, Thomas Weiss explores these compelling questions.

Routledge. Neither celebratory nor complacent, his analysis is an engaging exploration of the current quandaries and future challenges for robust international humanitarian action in the twenty-first century. Wiley-Blackwell. From rwanda to kosovo, and libya to côte dIvoire, Sierra Leone to East Timor, soldiers have rescued civilians in some of the world's most notorious war zones.

Used book in Good Condition.


Responsibility to Protect: The Global Effort to End Mass Atrocities by Bellamy, Alex J. Professor 2009 Paperback

Crc press. Used book in Good Condition. Wiley-Blackwell. Routledge.


Humanitarian Ethics: A Guide to the Morality of Aid in War and Disaster

Used book in Good Condition. For example, when does working closely with a warring party or an immoral regime move from practical cooperation to complicity in human rights violations? Should one operate in camps for displaced people and refugees if they are effectively places of internment? Do humanitarian agencies inadvertently encourage ethnic cleansing by always being ready to 'mop-up' the consequences of scorched earth warfare? This book has been written to help humanitarians assess and respond to these and other ethical dilemmas.

Wiley-Blackwell. Humanitarians are required to be impartial, independent, professionally competent and focused only on preventing and alleviating human suffering. Crc press. It can be hard living up to these principles when others do not share them, while persuading political and military authorities and non-state actors to let an agency assist on the ground requires savvy ethical skills.

Getting first to a conflict or natural catastrophe is only the beginning, as aid workers are usually and immediately presented with practical and moral questions about what to do next. Routledge.


Humanitarianism, War, and Politics: Solferino to Syria and Beyond New Millennium Books in International Studies

They conclude by evaluating the contemporary system and the prospects for further transformations, identifying scholarly puzzles and the acute operational problems faced by practitioners. The authors continue by unpacking the most recent “revolutions”—the International Criminal Court and the “Responsibility to Protect”—as well as such core challenges as displacement camps, eco-refugees, infectious diseases, and marketization.

What is humanitarianism? this authoritative book provides a comprehensive analysis of the original idea and its evolution, exploring its triangulation with war and politics. Used book in Good Condition. Peter J. Weiss trace the origins of humanitarianism, its social movement, and the institutions international humanitarian law and organizations providers of assistance and protection that comprise it.

They consider the international humanitarian system’s ability to regulate the conduct of war, to improve the wellbeing of its victims, and to prosecute war criminals. Hoffman and Thomas G. Probing the profound changes in the culture and capacities that underpin the sector and alter the meaning of humanitarianism, they assess the reinventions that constitute “revolutions in humanitarian affairs.

The book begins with traditions and perspectives—ranging from classic international relations approaches to “Critical Humanitarian Studies” —and reviews seminal wartime emergencies and the creation and development of humanitarian agencies in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The authors then examine the rise of “new humanitarianisms” after the Cold War’s end and contemporary cases after 9/11.




Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace - Or War

Used book in Good Condition. Calling for a redesign of assistance programmes so that they do not harm while doing their intended good, she argues futher that many opportunities exist for aid workers to in fact support the processes by which societies disengage from war. Anderson cites the experiences of many aid providers in war-torn societies to show that international assistance - even when it is effective in saving lives, alleviating suffering and furthering sustainable development - too often reinforces divisions among contending groups.

Routledge. Echoing the words of the hippocratic Oath, the author challenges aid agency staff to take responsibility for the ways that their assistance affects conflicts. Used book in Good Condition. Crc press. But more importantly, she offers hopeful evidence of creative programmes that point the way to new approaches to aid.

Mary B. Wiley-Blackwell.