Critical perspective on humanitarianism

A liberal and hegemonic form of humanitarianism has, since the end of the Cold War, been integrated into an interventionist agenda aimed at structurally transforming the turbulent periphery of the international system, characterized by what was considered a wave of barbaric violence. By breaking with the emergency-based and apolitical classical humanitarianism, liberal humanitarianism underlined the strategic need to act on the deeper roots of violence and pushed forward a so-called ‘integrated approach’ in which humanitarian aid, development aid and peacebuilding are intertwined and interlinked in missions aimed at promoting a durable peace. In the last decades, liberal humanitarianism has reconfigured with two fundamental features: assuming the aim of containing crises in the periphery with the aim of preventing the spreading of their effects to the center of the international system; focusing on victims’ capacity building to become more resilient and entrepreneur in moving out of that vulnerable condition. From a critical perspective, this paper argues that this form of containment and resilient humanitarianism is part of a neoliberal idea, promoting a formula in which the responsibility for overcoming a condition of existential vulnerability is transferred from power structures and humanitarian aid agents to the victims themselves. With this analysis, such an approach is questioned, underlining how it has contributed to the perpetuation of humanitarian crises it aims at responding to and preventing and how it deeply distorts the underlying aim of the humanitarian imperative in the face of such crises.