Dilemmas of Military Involvement in Humanitarian Relief

Abstract

The use of military forces for humanitarian purposes is a long- established tradition in all corners of the world. In the public mind, there is an association between disaster relief and military involvement; indeed, there is often an expectation that military units will assist the civilian population in the immediate after- math of wars and large-scale emergencies. The earliest recorded instances predate Alexander the Great. The assistance of armies to the populations they had conquered was seen as a humane gesture to the vanquished — and, not inconsequentially, a means of winning some degree of loyalty to the new regime.