Negotiating Relief

The Dialectics of Humanitarian Space

Edited by Michele Acuto

A Hurst Publication

Draws on examples such as the Haitian earthquake, the Tsunami, Somalia and Kosovo to examine the complexity of humanitarian diplomacy
Seeks to redress the simplistic misrepresentation between aid givers and relief takers

Negotiating Relief

The Dialectics of Humanitarian Space

Edited by Michele Acuto

A Hurst Publication

Description

While humanitarianism is unquestionably a fast-growing subject of practitioner and scholarly engagement, much discussion about it is predicated on a dangerous dichotomy between " that largely misrepresents the negotiated nature of the humanitarian enterprise. To highlight the tension between these relationships, this book focuses on the " (both local and global) that sustain them. It gathers key voices to provide a critical analysis of international theory, geopolitics and dilemmas underpinning the negotiation of relief.

Offering recent examples from cases such as Kosovo and the Tsunami, or ongoing crises like Haiti, Libya, Darfur and Somalia, the contributors analyze the complexity of humanitarian diplomacy and the multiplicity of geographies and actors involved in it. By investigating the transformations that both diplomacy and humanitarianism are undergoing, the authors prompt us towards a critical and eclectic understanding of the dialectics of humanitarian space. Negotiating Relief aims to present humanitarianism not only as a relief delivery mechanism but also as a phenomenon in dialogue with both localized crises and global politics.

Negotiating Relief

The Dialectics of Humanitarian Space

Edited by Michele Acuto

A Hurst Publication

Editor's acknowledgements

Preface: The politics of humanitarian space
Thomas G. Weiss
Introduction: Humanitarian puzzles
Michele Acuto

PART I. Questioning humanitarian spaces
1: Is humanitarian space shrinking?
Don Hubert and Cynthia Brassard-Boudreau
2: The humanitarian system: how does it affect humanitarian space?
Sarah Collinson
3: Humanitarianism, perceptions and power
Antonio Donini
4: Imaging catastrophe: the politics of representing humanitarian crises
Roland Bleiker, Emma Hutchinson and David Campbell

PART II. Six spaces for humanitarian politics
5: Humanitarian space in Darfur: caught between the local and the global
Kurt Mills
6: World politics and humanitarianism in Kosovo: a symbiotic relationship?
Andrea Edoardo Varisco
7: Humanitarian intervention in Libya: from empire to empire
Johan Galtung
8: Shifting sands: humanitarian relief in Aceh
Paul Zeccola
9: Spotlights and mirrors: media and the humanitarian community in Haiti's disaster
Mark Schuller
10: Leap of faith: negotiating humanitarian access in Somalia's 2011 famine
Ken Menkhaus

PART III. Contested space: interventions and dilemmas
11: Ethical complexity and perplexity: humanitarian actors, disasters and space
Heather M. Roff
12: The responsibility to protect: opening humanitarian spaces?
Alex J. Bellamy
13: Humanitarianism, intervention and the UN: a work in progress
Conor Foley
14: The dilemmas of psychosocial interventions
Phil O'Keefe, Janaka Jayawickrama and Geoff O'Brien
15: The impact of criminalising the enemy on humanitarianism
Fabrice Weissman
16: For humanity or for the umma? Ideologies of humanitarianism among transnational Islamic aid NGOs
Marie Juul Petersen

PART IV. Negotiated space: diplomacy and geopolitics
17: Humanitarians and diplomats: what connections?
William Maley
18: From arrow to path: international relations theory and the humanitarian space
Mathew Davies
19: Intersecting disasters: eschewing models, embracing geopolitics
Jennifer Hyndman
20: Humanitarianism, development and the liberal peace
David Chandler
21: Humanitarian diplomacy: the ICRC experience
Fiona Terry
22: On 'opening' humanitarian diplomacy: a dialectic space
Michele Acuto

Negotiating Relief

The Dialectics of Humanitarian Space

Edited by Michele Acuto

A Hurst Publication

Author Information

Michele Acuto is Research Director and Senior Lecturer in Global Networks & Diplomacy in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London.

Negotiating Relief

The Dialectics of Humanitarian Space

Edited by Michele Acuto

A Hurst Publication

Reviews and Awards

"This is a very valuable collection. Michele Acuto has sketched out a new way of looking at humanitarian diplomacy, and brought together an impressive array of humanitarian scholars to examine what it means for humanitarian action to take an ever larger place in local and international politics. An excellent one-stop shop for humanitarian students and professionals alike." -- Hugo Slim, Senior Research Fellow at the university of Oxford Institute for Ethics, and author of Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War

"One of the most notable features of modern society is the internationalisation of the human conscience and one of the great advances of the last hundred years has been the universalisation of the human rights norm. What does this signify for public policy in local and international politics? What is the humanitarian community, who are the humanitarian actors, is there such a thing as humanitarian space, and how sacrosanct should it be? A stellar cast of authors is assembled in this impressive volume to guide us towards answers to these critical questions of contested humanitarianism in an increasingly congested global space." -- Ramesh Thakur, The Australian National University, Editor-in-Chief, Global Governance