Military Intervention and the Humanitarian “Force Multiplier”

Abstract

Recent military interventions in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq have sparked controversy by using humanitarian aid to further military goals. In 1999, NATO forces set up refugee camps for fleeing Kosovars, even as NATO fighter pilots attacked Yugoslavia. US planes dropped both cluster bombs and food packets in Afghanistan in 2001. As the US military finalized plans for invading Iraq, the US Agency for International Development recruited nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to work in the war zone. Despite the heated rhetoric concerning militarized charity, military and humanitarian actors offer little examination of its effects. My analysis of recent military and NGO interaction reveals three types of interaction, which I term humanitarian soldiers, aid workers as government agents, and the humanitarian placebo. I find that in the absence of adequate security, “humanitarian soldiers” cannot create stability or meet local humanitarian needs. Additionally, aid organizations face the reality of non-neutrality...