The Geopolitics of Mercy: Humanitarianism in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

Internal conflict in LDCs has been one of the characteristics of the last decade. It remains to be seen if the current spate of crisis and conflict is to become a permanent operational reality for the international community or if it is only a transitory phase in the post-Cold War movement of tectonic plates. The inability to deal with such crises is the source of growing uneasiness, if not outright frustration. From Afghanistan to Zaire, for the disparate members of the ‘humanitarian international’, the writing is on the wall: in the face of massive human-rights violations and deliberate targeting of civilians in conflict situations we are no longer sure we are doing the right thing. More fundamentally, we have no common understanding of why crises occur. The very operating system of the international community’s response to crisis and conflict is in a state of flux, if not confusion.