The New Relief ‘Agenda’ and its Limits
This paper offers a synthesis of ideas debated at a one
day seminar examining international responses to
humanitarian tragedies. With many regions of the
world today caught up in a state of protracted crisis,
questions are increasingly being asked about the
international community’s commitment to respond to
acute human suffering wherever it occurs and to
address its underlying causes.
1. Background 5 Humanitarian values under fire 5 The new relief ‘agenda’ 6 2. Uncovering the assault on humanitarian values 9 The ‘normalisation’ of crisis 9 The political manipulation of relief aid 10 The undermining of humanitarian mandates 11 3. Origins of the assault on relief aid 13 Isolationism and the external critique of relief aid 13 Competing interests within the aid community 14 The ‘developmentalist’ orthodoxy 15 4. Protracted instability and the limits of relief aid 17 ‘Emerging political complexes’ 17 Non-conventional patterns of warfare 18 ‘Internalisation’ of the costs of war 19 5. Reaffirming humanitarian values 21 Keeping the critique of relief in perspective 21 Conclusion 23
