Reinventing (French) universalism: religion, humanitarianism and the ‘French doctors’

Abstract

Since the Biafran War, the Médecins sans frontières (MSF) and Médecins du Monde (MDM) movements have become the incarnation of modern French internationalism and universalism. These organisations have had a chequered and conflictual history. From the late 1970s the movements became increasingly associated with media developments, while its main protagonists became absorbed into politics. The Île‐de‐Lumière ship for Vietnam signalled a crucial turning point in the use of the media and in allying with traditional intellectual forces, while crises elsewhere in the early 1990s led to increased self‐reflexivity. Using the key texts of this phase, this article analyses how these movements looked back at the 1930s, and how two traditions of French humanitarianism found an echo among French doctors, the first being the religious movements representing a Catholic tradition of humanitarianism, the second being the secular post‐revolutionary tradition. Reconciling both traditions in humanitarian interventions, the ‘French doctors’ have developed a new universalism that transcends the right–left divide.