consideration because he has undertaken a political career?^13 Or Tony Blair, now
the namesake of many 10 year-old Kosovars?^14
A core concern of this thesis is to provide an account of humanitarianism
broad enough to situate all of the possibilities briefly outlined above. The danger of
such a project, though, is clearly to retreat into banal commonalities. Breadth of
outcome should not come at the expense of depth of analysis. Therefore, the thesis
will draw primarily on the experiences of professional humanitarians working in the
sphere of institutionalised humanitarianism, especially as it pertains to the
negotiation of its international political context.
Admittedly, locating “institutionalised humanitarianism” is itself a
problematic endeavour. Institutionalising the “humanitarian impulse”, in order to
avoid entirely contingent acts of rescue, has always occupied a variety of different
conceptual spaces. It has taken the form of sets of guiding principles, such as the
fundamental principles of the Red Cross; of law, such as IHL; of dedicated agencies,
such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).^15 Antonio
Donini considers that “[the] concept of humanitarianism is fraught with ambiguities.
It connotes three separate but overlapping realities: an ideology, a movement and a
profession.”^16
Even a straightforward historical account of all the ways in which the
humanitarian impulse has been realised and institutionalised could itself easily fill a
whole thesis. Since such is not the purpose of this one, the approach here will be to
bring in different practical embodiments of the humanitarian impulse as and when
13
For commentary on Kouchner’s trajectory see Tim Allen and David Styan, "A Right to
Interfere? Bernard Kouchner and the New Humanitarianism", Journal of International
Development 12, no. 6 (2000). Michael Ignatieff, Empire Lite: Nation-Building in Bosnia,
Kosovo and Afghanistan (London: Penguin, 2003), 45-75. Bernard Kouchner, Le Premier Qui
Dit La Vérité... Entretiens Avec Eric Favereau (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2002). Bernard
Kouchner, 14 Les Guerriers De La Paix: Du Kosovo À L'iraq (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 2004).
The preferred local version appears to be “Tonibler” or “Toni”. Ben Chu, "Named after
Tony in the Land Where Blair Is King", The Independent (10 July 2010). Available at
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/named-after-tony-in-the-land-where-
blair-is-king-2023127.html; accessed on 12 July 201 15 0.
For a definitive account of the UNHCR, see Gil Loescher, The UNHCR and World Politics: A
Perilous Path 16 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Antonio Donini, "The Far Side: The Meta Functions of Humanitarianism in a Globalised
World", Disasters 34, no. s2 (2010): 220.
marcin
(Marcin)
#1