The fact that humanitarian space cannot be opened or maintained by
humanitarians themselves suggests clear benefits from thinking politically
and collaborating with diplomatic and military institutions. This political
vision transforms humanitarianism. At the same time, the political sphere
needs to be widened to ensure that the international arena is as hospitable
as possible for both emergency aid and the protection of rights. Politics at its
best embraces a vision of human solidarity and works to operationalize a
strategy for making that solidarity real rather than rhetorical.^28II Taking States Seriously: Humanitarianism as Internationalist Solidarity
An important initial question to be addressed here, before examining the kind of
politics at stake, is that of the quality and appropriateness of state agency with
respect to the conduct of humanitarian action. In a recent essay, Stephen Hopgood
sets out an interesting problem: “can Wal-Mart be a humanitarian organization?”^29
Here we ask a related, and arguably more complex question. Can the state be, if not
a purely humanitarian agent (for perhaps such an agent does not exist), then an
agent of humanitarianism? Agency is understood simply as “the ability to act in the
world”.^30 Humanitarian agency thus refers to the ability to engage in humanitarian
action in the world. It is useful to note here an assumption that has thus far gone
unchallenged in this chapter and is rarely challenged in the literature. This is that
among humanitarian actors, humanitarian NGOs have a privileged and legitimate
claim to speak, and thus to act, on behalf of “humanitarianism” as a whole.
Certainly, they are often among the loudest voices, but the humanitarian system is
a complex one, with many voices and many actors: NGOs, IGOs, states, state
agencies. These are all collective agents. For humanitarian NGOs, the problems of
collective moral agency in international relations are as relevant as they are for
28
29 Weiss, "Principles, Politics, and Humanitarian Action": 21.
30 Hopgood, "Saying "No" To Wal-Mart?" 98.
Chris Brown, "Moral Agency and International Society: Reflections on Norms, the UN, the
Gulf War, and the Kosovo Campaign", in Can Institutions Have Responsibilities? Collective
Moral Agency and International Relations , ed. Toni Erskine (Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2003), 51.