The author analyses the new international context in which humanitarian action is being undertaken. He raises the problem caused by the diverging objectives of impartial, neutral humanitarianism and politically motivated actions that implement strategies of prevention and conflict resolution. He reviews the criticism that humanitarian has come under in recent years and that has resulted in esta...

Since the end of the Cold War, states have increasingly come under pressure to intervene militarily and, in fact, have intervened militarily to protect citizens other than their own from humanitarian disasters. Recent efforts to enforce protected areas for Kurds and no-fly zones over Shiites in Iraq, efforts to alleviate starvation and establish some kind of political order in Somalia, the huge...

The scale, scope, and significance of humanitarian action have expanded significantly since the late 1980s. This article reflects on two ways in which humanitarianism has been transformed. First, its purpose has been politicized. Whereas once humanitarian actors attempted to insulate themselves from the world of politics, they now work closely with states and attempt to eliminate the root cause...

As disaster response becomes more complex, entities involved in humanitarian operations also increase in numbers and sophistication. Humanitarian actors are beginning to see the value that an efficient supply chain can bring. However, participating actors are faced with competition for funding and often do not cooperate with each other, which produces inefficient outcomes at the expenses of the...

Donors have expressed disappointment in the performance of humanitarian organizations in responding to recent unprecedented disasters. Efforts to restore confidence have focused in part on improving transparency, accountability and capability through implementation of supply chain management information systems. This paper explores issues of trust, control and confidence in partner cooperation ...

The World Health Organization estimates that the burden of surgical disease due to war, self-inflicted injuries, and road traffic incidents will rise dramatically by 2020. During the 2009 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's Humanitarian Action Summit (HHI/HAS),members of the Burden of Surgical Disease Working Group met to review the state of surgical epidemiology, the unmet global surgical need, ...

Humanitarian aid in settings of conflict has always been fraught with challenges. In the absence of political engagement, however, manipulation by state authorities, however, have the potential to pervert aid intervention to inflict harm. South Sudan exemplifies how states may abuse the humanitarian response to retreat from public responsibility, divert funds to further violence and conflict an...

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake caused a wide range of problems, and as countermeasures, many aid activities were carried out. Many of these problems and aid activities were reported via Twitter. However, most problem reports and corresponding aid messages were not successfully exchanged between victims and local governments or humanitarian organizations, overwhelmed by the vast amount of ...

This chapter focuses on an auction-based procurement framework for single coordinating platforms in humanitarian logistics. It first covers disaster relief operations, humanitarian logistics, and procurement in this context and illustrate many of the issues that make the management and coordination of procurement functions complex and challenging. Then the proposed framework along with the auct...

_ Nyagudi Musandu (Independent Researcher, Nairobi, KENYA – EAST AFRICA) Abstract: With the deployment of lethal autonomous weapons, there is the requirement that any such platform complies with the precepts of International Humanitarian Law. Humanitarian Algorithms[9: p. 9] ensure that lethal autonomous weapon systems perform military/security operations, within the confines of International H...