& International Affairs.^37 Other important voices in this expanding discussion
include Hugo Slim and Larry Minear, who have both also straddled the worlds of
academia, practice and policy.^38 Some writers identify an emerging new field of
humanitarian studies.^39
Assembled together in this way, this literature throws up a number of
important questions, which might be organized around three key, inter-connected
themes, already present in Weiss’ 1999 article: (1) the principles that define and
37
Alain Destexhe, "Holding Humanitarianism Hostage: The Politics of Rescue", Ethics &
International Affairs 11, no. 1 (1997). David R. Mapel, "When Is It Right to Rescue? A
Response to Pasic and Weiss", Ethics & International Affairs 11, no. 1 (1997). Andrew
Natsios, "NGOs and the Humanitarian Impulse: Some Have It Right", Ethics & International
Affairs 11, no. 1 (1997). Amir Pasic and Thomas G. Weiss, "The Politics of Rescue:
Yugoslavia's Wars and the Humanitarian Impulse", Ethics & International Affairs 11 (1997).
Rieff, "Moral Imperatives and Political Realities". Sommaruga, "Humanity". Joelle Tanguy
and Fiona Terry, "Humanitarian Responsibility and Committed Action: Response To
"Principles, Politics, and Humanitarian Action"", 13, no. 1 (1999). Weiss, "Principles, Politics,
and Humanitarian Action". Thomas G. Weiss, Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas in Action
(Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007). Thomas G. Weiss and Jarat Chopra, "Sovereignty under
Siege: From Intervention to Humanitarian Space", in Beyond Westphalia? State Sovereignty
and International Intervention , ed. Gene M. Lyons and Michael Mastanduno (London: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1995). 38
Larry Minear, The Humanitarian Enterprise: Dilemmas and Discoveries (Bloomfield:
Kumarian Press, 2002). Hugo Slim, "Sharing a Universal Ethic: The Principle of Humanity in
War", International Journal of Human Rights 2, no. 4 (1998). Hugo Slim, "Humanitarianism
and the Holocaust: Lessons from the ICRC's Policy Towards the Jews", The International
Journal of Human Rights 5, no. 1 (2001). Hugo Slim, "Not Philanthropy but Rights: The
Proper Politicisation of Humanitarian Philosophy", The International Journal of Human
Rights 6, no. 2 (2002). Hugo Slim, Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War
(London: Hurst & Company, 2007). Smillie and Minear 39 , The Charity of Nations.
“Humanitarian studies examine how humanitarian crises evolve, how they affect people,
institutions and societies, and the responses that they trigger.” Dorothea Hilhorst, Dennis
Dijkzeul and Joost Herman, "Editorial: Social Dynamics of Humanitarian Action", Disasters
34, no. s2 (2010): 127. Other key institutional contexts for these discussions include the
Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the
Humantarian Futures Programme at King’s College, London and the Feinstein International
Center at Tufts University. Feinstein International Center. Available at
https://wikis.uit.tufts.edu/confluence/display/FIC/Feinstein+International+Center;
accessed on 20 August 2010. Humanitarian Futures Programme. Available at
http://www.humanitarianfutures.org; accessed on 03 August 2010. Humanitarian Policy
Group. Available at http://www.odi.org.uk/work/programmes/humanitarian-policy-group/;
accessed on 20 August 2010. For a defence of the quality of debate among humanitarians,
and an interesting view of how debate within humanitarianism is being accelerated and
enriched by the fast-moving changes in information technology, see HPG, "Aid Workers -
More Than Just 'Cowboys'", AlertNet (18 August 2010). Available at
http://alertnet.org/db/blogs/56091/2010/07/18-150513-1.htm; accessed on 20 August
2010.
marcin
(Marcin)
#1