The Origins, Development and Future of the International Humanitarian System: Containment, Compassion and Crusades.

This paper examines the origin of the collection of processes, organizations and international structures which today make up the International Humanitarian system. It pays particular attention to its development from the mid 19th centaury onwards, tracing both state and non-state actions. It builds a model of humanitarian action which hypothesizes that its origins lie in three very different agendas: An agenda of containment and security, an agenda of compassion and an agenda of radical change. The present state of international humanitarian action is examined against this analysis and found lacking. Drawing on field work from Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq the paper argues that humanitarian action has become significantly, maybe fatally, entwined with the political agenda of the Northern metropolitan states. The paper goes on to suggest actions which humanitarian agencies and their financial backers could take to render the humanitarian system more fit for its future challenges. This paper seeks to move us towards a deeper understanding of this complex concept, and in particular of its evolution and diffusion by exploring the ‘globalization’ of humanitarianism. It examines the extent to which humanitarianism should be understood as a globalized concept, interrogating three dimensions of this globalization: those of moral community, of practices, and of norms. It argues that while in several respects humanitarianism can be understood as a globalized concept, this ‘globalization’ is constrained and contested in significant ways at both conceptual level and at the level of practice. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]