Realism or idealism, or both? Security policy and humanitarianism

Wolf-Dieter Eberwein

No P 01-307, Discussion Papers, Research Group International Politics from WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Abstract: The paper focuses on the relationship between security policy and humanitarianism, two policy fields with different roles. In the case of violent domestic conflict they get inevitably very close where distance between them – at least from the humanitarian perspective - should be greatest. This is the argument based upon the model of complementarity characterizing the relationship between the state and non-state actors in the policy field of humanitarian aid. The core argument is that the politicization process which has characterized the developments in humanitarian affairs is incomplete. Thus far, security concerns seem to favor this process by subordination of humanitarianism. What is required is the “politicization from below”, the societal actors, as a counterweight to the “politicization from above”, the state actors. The goal is a rights-based approach to humanitarianism. Such a normative change in the international order is desirable both from a security policy perspective as well as from the humanitarian perspective. The structural conditions characterizing the policy field of humanitarian aid are not such as to favor such a development.

Date: 2001
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