Complex humanitarian emergencies have posed a challenge for the ethical project behind traditional humanitarianism. The humanitarian action field is under permanent scrutiny over its motivations, efficiency and impact. Altruism, compassion, humanity and other ethical values have supported the development of contemporary humanitarianism, but something is missing. This thesis is an attempt to understand the roots of the ethical project behind humanitarianism by analysing the concept of vulnerability through the lens of different theoretical frameworks that can add new perspectives with the objective of proposing a new interpretation in accordance to the context of a contemporary complex humanitarian emergency: Venezuela.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / Natural as well as man-made disasters have become commonalities of daily life in recent decades for a large portion of the world's population. This growing trend reflects the worldwide proliferation in recent years of Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (CHEs) and peace operations. Humanitarian emergencies and peace operations are a complex mix of related activities that require the combined efforts of the UN, military, International Organizations (IOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Given the nature and similarities of their missions, there is an ongoing need for these organizations to have access to accurate, current, and comprehensive information about field conditions and each other's movements. In several of the CHEs and peacekeeping operations of recent years, a recurring problem has been poor communication due to inadequate equipment, non-compatibility of equipment and a non-standardized communications infrastructure. This thesis explores the impact and possible benefits that wireless technology can provide to help bridge the communication gap that exists among the UN and the NGOs who participate in CHEs and peacekeeping operations. / Lieutenant Commander, Supply Corps, United States Navy / Lieutenant, United States Navy

The legal humanitarian regime, set out in the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols, strives to alleviate human suffering through the provision of emergency goods and services, such as food supplies, water, temporary shelter, and medical treatment. This thesis examines how international non-government organizations (INGOs) contribute to the contestation of this regime in political emergencies, the effects of this contestation, and the factors driving INGO contestation. The thesis develops an analytical framework for understanding the nature and functioning of the legal humanitarian regime, and argues that INGO contestation occurs through the two processes of regime interpretation and regime implementation. It then goes on to identify the substantive content and effects of contestation, and the factors driving INGO contestation of the regime, through a detailed study of the policies and practices of CARE, Médecins Sans Frontiers, Oxfam, and World Vision, in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, from 1990-2010. The thesis argues that contestation has constitutive effects, as it re-defines the meaning of the formal humanitarian regime, and the underlying rules and norms that specify the regime’s function, scope, and operating principles. Contestation also has causal effects, as it can make INGOs participants in the conflict, eroding thereby the basis on which they negotiate access and their ability to respond to humanitarian needs, and the security of their staff. It has also facilitated the subordination of humanitarian assistance by donor states and combatants to their political and security objectives. INGO identity - expressed in terms of the constituent rules and norms that define INGO membership, their mandate and goals, and the manner in which they distinguish themselves from other actors - is argued to be a necessary factor for explaining INGO contestation. The focus on identity highlights the agency of INGOs in shaping the humanitarian regime and demonstrates that INGOs are not simply at the mercy of more powerful actors or external constraints.

Over the last two decades, the international community has taken on the task of rebuilding societies in the aftermath of mass-atrocities. Through a combination of trial and error and vigorous academic research, a relatively clear (and semi-malleable) blueprint of post-atrocity peacebuilding has developed. This includes setting up a temporary international transitional authority, establishing democracy, facilitating economic development, and holding war crime trials. Though there are volumes of studies which address the pragmatic strengths and weaknesses of these key elements of peacebuilding, to date political theorists have not critically analyzed the moral legitimacy of these policies. My thesis aims to fill this gap. The overarching question of this thesis is this: What moral duties does the international community have to post-atrocity societies? To answer this question, I critically examine the normative issues involved in the four key aspects of peacebuilding (identified above). Using the framework of just war theory and a cosmopolitan theory of fundamental human rights, I argue that, in most post-atrocity cases, the international community has duties to remove atrocity-committing regimes from power, occupy the target-state and act as a transitional authority, help facilitate the creation of democracy and economic development, and hold war crimes trials. These duties, of course, are extremely complicated and limited and these qualifications are examined and developed throughout. Running through the construction of my theory of post-atrocity duties is a clear message: we – the international community – have obligations to the victims and survivors of atrocities. In other words, providing assistance in the wake of mass-atrocities is not a supererogatory act of charity, rather, it is a duty which we owe to the victims of these horrible crimes.

This thesis examines the approaches taken by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to the protection of civilians during internal armed conflict, both at the level of global policy and at the level of implementation in the Colombian context. The thesis explains how the ICRC and UNHCR approach protection, why each has adopted its particular approach, and how and why the effectiveness of each approach is limited. In doing so, it offers a theoretical framework for explaining the approaches taken by international organizations (IOs) to new tasks within their mandates as well as policy implications for the ICRC, UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies. From a theoretical perspective, this research shows that factors internal to the IO carry greater explanatory power than external factors. Most significantly, when an IO expands into a new issue-area, it frames the new task in terms of the existing tasks within its mandate, replicating the specific goals and the means of pursuing those goals. The extent to which the approach is then adapted to the specificities of the new issue-area depends on the ‘bureaucratic personality’ of the IO, and specifically the extent to which decisions are informed by field-level experience. Internal conflicts by definition include armed non-state actors, and the analysis in this thesis emphasises both their significance in determining civilian security and their neglect in existing approaches to protection. While the ICRC seeks to reduce the threat posed by all armed actors (state and non-state) in its work at the field level, it relies heavily on an international legal framework which prioritises states and this partially undermines its attention to non-state actors at the field level. UNHCR retains a state-centric focus at both the field level and the level of global policy. From a policy perspective, therefore, the thesis advocates greater attention to armed non-state actors both at the level of practice and in the development of protection norms.

This thesis concerns the history of humanitarian nutrition and its political implications. Drawing on aid agency archives and other historical sources, it examines how food has been delivered in emergencies, from the First World War to the present day. The approach is ethnographic: this is a study of the micro-level practices of relief, examining the objects distributed, the plans made, the techniques used. It is also historical: examining how such practices have changed over time. This thesis makes five interlocking arguments. First, I make a political point: that humanitarian action is always political, and that it is impossible to adhere to ‘classical’ humanitarian principles such as neutrality, impartiality and independence. Second, I make a sociological argument: that the activities of humanitarian nutrition have been shaped by a number of themes, which include militarism, medicine, modernity, and markets. Third, I make a historical argument: that the main features of humanitarian nutrition were solidified between the 1930s and the 1970s, and were largely in place by the time of the Biafran war. Fourth, I make a sociological argument: that these mid-century changes involved a profound redefinition of hunger and food (with hunger conceived as a biochemical deficiency, and food as a collection of nutrients). Finally, I make a normative argument, suggesting that this redefinition has not necessarily benefited the starving: the provision of food in emergencies, I argue, is often concerned with control and efficiency rather than the suffering individuals themselves.

Existe uma tensão extraordinária no sistema humanitário: crises e emergências atingem cada vez mais povos, duram mais e são gradativamente mais complexas. As consequências dos conflitos armados e desastres socioambientais para a saúde mental e bem-estar psicossocial de indivíduos e povos, bem como para a ecologia social e os recursos comunitários significativos, já são reconhecidas e continuamente pesquisadas. Esta tese, a seu turno, explora as práticas e políticas do setor de Saúde Mental em emergências humanitárias e toma como ponto de partida analítico o desenvolvimento das Diretrizes do Comitê Permanente Interagências (IASC) em Saúde Mental e Apoio Psicossocial (SMAPS) em emergências humanitárias, lançadas no ano de 2007, assim como sua subsequente disseminação e configuração de governança, além de sua influência sobre projetos e instituições. As diretrizes IASC representam um marco lógico de importante contribuição para o setor de ajuda humanitária, no entanto, ainda constituem um campo de várias disputas e paradoxos, não só na área das referências teóricas e práticas em SMAPS em emergências humanitárias, como também relativamente à sua inserção em uma economia-política do setor de ajuda humanitária paradoxal nos princípios humanitários e éticos. Essa inserção molda as características particulares do funcionamento das Diretrizes e influencia a maneira como se produzem práticas e políticas. Fundamentando-se na pesquisa-ação, nas experiências do autor, o qual atuou como psicólogo na linha de frente em crises humanitárias na Líbia, Gaza, Síria, Timor-Leste e outros contextos, e em entrevistas com atores internacionalmente renomados e responsáveis pela elaboração e gestão de políticas internacionais do setor global de SMAPS, esta tese examina esse processo em detalhe, considerando o desenvolvimento e evolução das Diretrizes IASC de SMAPS e como, atualmente, a área de SMAPS se configura no interior da economia-política do setor humanitário. Mais explicitamente, analisam-se as maneiras como o discurso e a prática do setor de SMAPS são transformados pela estrutura humanitária que ele engendra. Desse modo, e por meio da discussão de todos esses elementos, este trabalho objetiva realizar uma revisão de elementos que influenciam e permitem o desenvolvimento de assistência humanitária seja cooptada em formas particulares que se articulam a interesses não humanitários, moldando substancial e prejudicialmente os projetos de SMAPS em emergências humanitárias ao redor do mundo. / There is extraordinary strain placed on the humanitarian system. Crises and emergencies are occurring more often, affecting more people, and in contexts of increasingly complexity. The impacts of conflict and disaster on mental health as well as on the social ecology and community resources needed for coping and recovery are very well documented. This research explores the politics of mental health and psychosocial programmes in humanitarian settings, and its analytical starting point is the development of the Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Emergencies settings launched in the year of 2007. The research explores how the field was developed, its structural governance, trying to explore the political economy configuration of humanitarian organizations providing MHPSS in its discourses, practices and impact. It is demonstrated the MHPSS IASC guidelines unprecedent contribution to the field, however it shows how it is affected by the political economy of aid that it is fundamentally part of. This structural political economy shapes the field and influences the way SMAPS is provided. Using action research, the author\'s own experiences responding to several humanitarian crises for more than 14 years, and interviews with well-known global MHPSS policy makers, this thesis examines this process in detail, considering how the development of the guidelines has developed and evolved, and how the area currently shapes in the political economy of aid. More explicitly, it analyzes the ways in which the discourse and practice of the MHPSS field are transformed by the humanitarian structure it engenders. Despite the field achievements, action research illustrates that this process allows the development of MHPSS response to be co-opted in particular ways that articulate non-humanitarian interests, substantially and harmfully influencing the MHPSS responses.

Some 5 million people were classified as internally displaced in Colombia at the end of 2012, which represented about 10 per cent of the population and the highest number in the world at the time. Colombia differs from other countries with high levels of displacement in that it is comparatively politically stable, has effective national institutions, a relatively strong formal economy, and can by no means be described as a ‘failed’ or ‘failing’ state. The displacement literature tends to characterise the phenomenon as a humanitarian crisis and a side effect of the long-running civil war. But Colombians continue to be displaced in very large numbers despite the formal demobilization of the paramilitaries in 2006 and the diminished military capacity and engagement of the guerrillas since about the same period: the same groups that are widely regarded as being the main perpetrators of displacement. This thesis contends that displacement of the civilian population in Colombia is frequently not a consequence of violence, but rather the primary objective, where violence plays a facilitatory role. Moreover, the thesis asserts that these massive levels of displacement are substantively linked to predominantly economically-motivated logics and are regionally specific. By examining an agricultural commodity that has significantly expanded relatively recently in Colombia - African palm oil - this research examines if and how expanded cultivation may be linked to displacement. Using a political economy framework of analysis combined with empirical fieldwork, it explores the ‘localised displacement logics’ whereby land is coercively acquired by powerful local groups. The thesis concludes that the abandonment and dispossession of land from poor and marginalised groups constitutes part of an ongoing process of capitalist expansion and statebuilding in Colombia. Contrary to assertions that it is the intra-state conflict that constitutes the central obstacle to development, Colombia’s current trajectory of capitalist development may actually be a central obstacle to sustainable peace and not lead to an end to displacement.

In the last decade, scholars have recognized economic development and modernization as crucial themes in the history of the twentieth century and the ‘global Cold War.’ Yet while historians have written lucid histories of the role of the social sciences in American foreign policy in the Third World, far less is known on the Soviet Union’s ideological and material support during the same period for countries like Egypt, India, Ethiopia, Angola, or – most prominently – Afghanistan. This dissertation argues that the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan is best understood as the final and most costly of a series developmental interventions staged in that country during the latter half of the twentieth century by Afghans, Soviets, Americans, Germans and others. Cold War-era Afghanistan is best understood as a laboratory for ideas about the nation-state and the idea of a ‘national economy.’ One can best understand Afghanistan during that period less through a common but ahistorical ‘graveyard of empires’ narrative, and more in terms of the history of the social sciences, the state system in South and Central Asia, and the ideological changes in ideas about the state and the economy in 20th century economic thought. Four chapters explore this theme, looking at the history of the Soviet social sciences, developmental interventions in Afghanistan prior to 1978, a case study of Soviet advisors in eastern Afghanistan, and Soviet interventions to protect Afghan women. Making use of new materials from Soviet, German, and American archives, and dozens of interviews with former Soviet advisors, this dissertation makes a new and meaningful contribution to the historical literature on the Soviet Union, Central Asia, and international history.

The emergence of regional security organisations during the 1990s in Africa proved to be of great significance for the lives of many Africans, including those living in conflict-torn countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire or the Democratic Republic of Congo, but, at the same time, this phenomenon has been understudied. This dissertation explores why regional security organisations with an agenda of democratic governance emerged in Africa in the 1990s. This question is answered with two in-depth case studies on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Driven by an empirical puzzle, this study is both hypothesis-testing and hypothesis generating. The study starts by laying out the different possible factors put forward by several bodies of theory in international relations to explain the emergence of ECOWAS and SADC as security organisations. These hypotheses are then tested throughout the history and the evolution of ECOWAS and SADC in order to highlight the circumstances of their creation and their qualified failure as economic communities. This is followed by a comparative analysis of the security and democracy mandates entrusted to ECOWAS and SADC by its member states based on the study of the legal texts that outline the specific objectives of each regional security organisation and the tools they were given to implement their mandates. The study finally analyses the implementation records of ECOWAS and SADC in order to assess the commitment of their member states to their new democracy and security mandate. The research concludes with the two following hypotheses: 1) A security agenda cannot emerge without the involvement of the regional hegemon. 2) What the regional hegemon can do, including affecting the speed of the transformation, is constrained by the acceptance of its leadership by its neighbours (legitimacy) and by state weakness (capability).