Description:
Years of tremendous growth in response to complex emergencies have left a mark on the humanitarian sector. Various matters that once seemed settled are now subjects of intense debate. What is humanitarianism? Is it limited to the provision of relief...
Brief description: Michael Barnett is University Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at The George Washington University. He is author of Eyewitness to a Genocide and coeditor of Humanitarianism in Question, both from Cornell.
Review Quotes:
This is a superb survey of the rise and challenges of international humanitarianism assistance. The book chronicles the remarkable post-Cold War emergence of a global system of humanitarian relief--a system complete with doctrines, organizations, and extensive field operations. But it is also a system under stress, working increasingly with little guidance or support in war-torn societies.... The authors in this collection step back from these developments to ask first-order questions about the purposes and principles of humanitarianism.... This book will long be an essential guide to the theory and politics of global humanitarianism.
--G. John Ikenberry "Foreign Affairs"