Abstract
This paper explores and illustrates the diverse manifestations of the phenomenon of the ‘humanitarian alibi’, drawing upon historical and contemporary cases of violent conflict in order to identify substitutionary phenomena by governments and international actors. It affirms the existence of substitution process where humanitarian aid intervention substitutes for the prevention and resolution of violent conflict and the protection of civilian populations. The paper argues for expanding the humanitarian alibi, however, to take into account how international aid intervention compensates for both the systemic neglect of conflict related crises and for the systemic harm that exacerbates and perpetuates these crises. It also challenges the suggestion that the humanitarian alibi phenomenon is the product of a bygone era, and finds that the use of aid as a substitute for peacemaking can co-exist alongside the use of aid as a direct component of international intervention.
Highlights
This paper explores and illustrates the diverse manifestations of the phenomenon of the ‘humanitarian alibi’, drawing upon historical and contemporary cases of violent conflict in order to identify substitutionary phenomena by governments and international actors
The term ‘humanitarian alibi’ has since largely receded from the prevailing discourse, replaced by terms such as the ‘politicisation’ and ‘militarisation’ of humanitarianism; these refer to the use of humanitarian action by governments as a direct component of international intervention, for example, the invoking of humanitarian justifications to justify warfare (e.g. ‘humanitarian war’), ‘integrated’/’coherent’ approaches to political and aid-based intervention and the direct involvement of military forces in delivering assistance to populations
In keeping with a practical perspective, this paper draws upon a range of a range of historical and contemporary cases of violent conflict in order to explore the diverse manifestations of the humanitarian alibi phenomenon
Summary
This paper explores and illustrates the diverse manifestations of the phenomenon of the ‘humanitarian alibi’, drawing upon historical and contemporary cases of violent conflict in order to identify substitutionary phenomena by governments and international actors. They affirm the existence of a substitution process, where international aid intervention substitutes for a political response to prevent and resolve violent conflict and to protect conflictaffected civilian populations.
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