6. Humanitarian Identity and Internationalist Solidarity:
Humanity” in a World of States 6. Humanitarian Identity and Internationalist Solidarity: Conducting the “Politics of
At its most plausible, humanitarianism has always been more than a vapid plea for
the world to become a nicer place. It is about practical engagement and a visceral
response to injustice in a messy world. Yet professional humanitarians still try to
ring-fence a separate, individuated sphere for themselves to act in, often through
the concept of “humanitarian space”. Especially important to them is preserving
independence from states. But the possibility of such a distinction seems dubious,
especially in the context of contemporary professional humanitarianism. Craig
Calhoun argues that “at the same time that humanitarian assistance has become an
industry, it remains centrally a state project”.^1 Barnett and Synder concur. “States
have become central players in humanitarian action over the last twenty years.”^2
Moreover, returning to the question of the scope of humanitarianism, it is
by now clear that the “politics of humanity” characteristic of humanitarianism is
always a kind of progressive politics. It is about the envisioning of a better world
through the provision of solidarity. It represents a will towards that world, a gesture
of creation. The humanitarian impulse, explored in Chapter 3, provides a good
description of the intuition that underpins a broadly conceived progressive
international politics of humanitarianism. Yet an understanding of the mechanisms
of humanitarian solidarity alone cannot provide us with a full description of such a
politics. We need to carve out a space in international political theory to
contextualise that humanitarian concern. This chapter will suggest a broad
theoretical context which might be useful in elaborating a clearer picture of how to
operationalise more systematically our humanitarian solidarities. Furthermore,
going back to the concerns expressed in the introduction regarding the rejection by
1
2 Calhoun, "The Imperative to Reduce Suffering", 89.^
Michael Barnett and Jack Snyder, "The Grand Strategies of Humanitarianism", in
Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics , ed. Michael Barnett and Thomas G.
Weiss (London: Cornell University Press, 2008), 156.