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December 8, 2002
REVIEWS: How to help
After the second world war, international relations were dominated by confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Global politics entered a period of cold war which affected every aspect of public life. Both the United States and the Soviet Union extended the cold war beyond their geographical boundaries to third world countries at the cost of economic development, human rights and support for the poor and the deserving. The geopolitics of this period was such that during the famine in Ethiopia, Reagan used “the status of the Ethiopian government as a cold war adversary to deprive needy Ethiopians of emergency assistance”.
Since the end of the cold war in 1991, the third world countries have become more accessible to international aid workers. There is a better awareness of human rights and individual needs. The focus of international aid has been more on human beings and humanitarian issues.
The cold war may have ended, but the fight for global supremacy between the superpowers has turned the world into a “troubled and fractured planet”. Political instability and military actions still plague the world. Amidst all the turmoil, international humanitarian workers are faced with the challenge of protecting basic human rights and providing emergency relief to victims of conflict.
Larry Minear’s book, The humanitarian enterprise: dilemmas and discoveries, is a handbook for individual aid workers and relief agencies. It documents the historical background and conceptual framework of human rights and humanitarian work.
It points out the need for humanitarian relief. It lauds the success, and analyses the failures of the humanitarian efforts. It reviews the interplay between political forces and military actions with humanitarian intervention. It questions the recurring patterns and unresolved issues. It identifies the challenges faced by humanitarian workers and it offers many suggestions for their more effective functioning.
He is against the predominantly Western and Christian thrust of donor governments. He advocates strengthening the local institutions, working in partnership with indigenous relief workers, and refraining from the “one-size-fits-all” approach.
Larry Minear examines the work of the United Nations, the Red Cross, the national governments and some other development and private agencies. His choice of event is selective. It is not a comprehensive list of all the humanitarian emergencies since the passing away of the cold war.
Larry Minear brings an insider’s view to humanitarian work. He has worked on humanitarian and development issues since 1972. He is the co-director, of the Humanitarian and War Project at the Feinstein International Famine Centre in Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Established in response to the need for humanitarian intervention and the difficulties encountered by the relief workers, the project has investigated emergencies around the world and has conducted more than 3,000 interviews. It has analyzed the complex relationship between political and military institutions, and the political fallout of economic sanctions. The humanitarian enterprise is amongst the long and impressive lists of handbooks, training guides, articles, books and a CD-ROM that the Humanitarian and War Project has produced.
Larry Minear is probing and critical, but not provocative. Throughout the book, except in the last chapter, he is objective and hopeful. He does not find the system perfect, but he does not despair. He delineates the complexities, dilemmas, and challenges of humanitarian work. He emphasizes the need for humanitarian intervention, and he advocates changes within the system for making it more efficient.
In the last chapter, “Humanitarian action in time of terrorism”, written in repose to September 11, he is emotional and discouraged. “The humanitarian enterprise is living on borrowed time,” he writes. He thinks that “Indeed, antiterrorism is already showing signs of becoming ‘the new cold war,’ the world this time divided in Manichean fashion between terrorists and antiterrorists, good and evil, us and them, those who are ‘for us’ and those ‘against us’... the Afghan crisis puts a premium on identifying the yet-unlearned lessons, political and humanitarian alike, from the cold war, which the United States and its allies continue to pride themselves for having ‘won’.”
And he goes on, “I fear for the future of the humanitarian enterprise... I fear for the future of shared impulse to which organized humanitarian efforts attempt to give practical meaning.”
The dilemmas and challenges of humanitarian enterprise continue to grow. Saving human lives, protecting human dignity, and improving the conditions of human beings remain a top priority as more and more innocent civilians fall victim to power politics.
Reading The humanitarian enterprise, a non-specialist will learn about the intricacies of providing humanitarian assistance during times of crisis: there is much more to lending a helping hand than the availability of funds. Humanitarian enterprise is a comparatively new and growing field. The department of humanitarian affairs at the United Nations was formed in 1991. Larry Minear has written extensively in this area. This recent book by him is a useful addition to this burgeoning field.
The humanitarian enterprise: dilemmas and discoveries
By Larry Minear
Kumarian Press, 1294 Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield CT 06002, USA Tel: 001-800-289-2664
Fax: 001-860-243-2867
Website:
www.kpbooks.com
ISBN: 1-56549-150-5
288pp. $25.95
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