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Motivation: Displacement significantly disrupts physical environments, social structures, and personal identities, profoundly impacting people's well‐being. Recent studies indicate that displacement can also reshape gender dynamics, highlighting the potential of displacement to transform traditional roles and relationships. Purpose: This study investigates the transformative impact of displacement on gender roles in the context of the Za'atari camp in Jordan. Specifically, it examines how humanitarian aid and forced displacement converge to alter gender relations and enhance women's autonomy. Approach and Methods: The research draws on qualitative interviews with 15 women residing in the Za'atari camp. By exploring their experiences, the study aims to understand how displacement can act as a catalyst for empowerment and self‐sufficiency, despite the inherent challenges faced by these women. Findings: The study reveals that displacement increases independence and self‐awareness, and improves decision‐making among women, facilitating their active participation in society. Humanitarian interventions, particularly educational and vocational programmes, play a crucial role in empowering women by improving self‐confidence, communication skills, and legal awareness. These initiatives also provide access to the labour market, challenging traditional gender norms. Policy Implications: Despite the positive impacts, significant obstacles persist. Women often assume greater responsibilities as primary breadwinners, which can erode their control within personal spheres and increase vulnerabilities. Traditional norms continue to hinder complete gender parity. The findings underscore the need for comprehensive and sustainable humanitarian interventions to support and sustain positive changes in gender dynamics in displacement settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Intervention before interventionism" challenges the singular interpretation of the concept of intervention in International Relations (IR) and explores the diverse perspectives and historical contexts surrounding the practice. The author, Patrick Quinton-Brown, delves into the genealogy of intervention, highlighting the postcolonial sensibilities and normative debates that have shaped global governance. Through a critical examination of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine and humanitarianism, the article uncovers the complex intersections of sovereignty, self-determination, and international solidarity in the global South's struggles against colonialism and imperialism. The text emphasizes the need to rethink intervention beyond traditional interventionist frameworks and to consider alternative interpretations that prioritize collective action, solidarity, and decolonization in shaping future global justice initiatives. [Extracted from the article]

Does public support for armed humanitarian intervention depend on the race and religion of those it seeks to save? Social identity theory predicts that people prefer helping strangers with whom they share an identity, but norms of paternalism and cosmopolitanism could moderate such favoritism. We test these propositions via survey experiments administered to a nationally representative sample of Americans that randomized the racial and religious characteristics of foreigners in a hypothetical civil war. The data reveal that Americans, especially Christians, prefer to intervene on behalf of Christians over Muslims. Ingroup affinity rather than outgroup Islamophobia explains this effect. Meanwhile, Americans exhibit less consistent prejudice along racial lines. Finally, while scholars find paternalist norms affect attitudes toward economic assistance, we find no similar effect for military intervention. Cosmopolitan Americans, however, express less identity-based bias. We conclude that people act on their basic socio-psychological instincts, but norms could attenuate these biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ample scholarship thoroughly documents how modern humanitarian aid enacts legacies of colonialism and processes of Westernization through the imposition of foreign values and promotion of 'universal' norms. Extensive research has also explored processes of socio-cultural-moral transformation due to crisis and displacement. This paper extends this work by demonstrating an explicit connection between the two. Drawing on 10 months of ethnographic research that examined how Burundian refugees in Tanzania experience humanitarian social emotional learning (SEL), findings reveal various intersecting lines of crisis in the Nduta refugee camp. This research illuminates how SEL interacts with these lines of crisis to exacerbate intergenerational tensions. The self-centric values promoted through SEL and the pedagogies it employs conflict with the collectivist ethos of the Nduta community, thus breaking the Burundian generational contract of reciprocity, solidarity, and moral responsibility. In this context, SEL operates on conflicting narratives of crisis that clash with generational hopes for the prevention of future crisis in Burundi. These generational fractures are resulting in fears across the Nduta community that the decline of traditional Burundian values and communitarian ethos will not only perpetuate intergenerational experiences of crisis but has also initiated the perceived erasure of their culture and the essence of their humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background This study explores vision care priorities and coping mechanisms for Israeli evacuees and following the October 7th, 2023, attack by Hamas, which displaced 150,000 individuals, with about 15,000 being evacuated to the Dead Sea area. Faced with minimal health care infrastructure in the Dead Sea area and often lacking personal belongings, including eyeglasses and ocular medicine, these evacuees confronted significant vision care challenges. This context sets the stage for investigating the emergency vision care needs and solutions for populations affected by conflict and displacement. Methods In response to this crisis, a consortium led by Hadassah Academic College’s Department of Optometry and the Dept. of Ophthalmology at Hadassah Medical Center established ophthalmic clinics in the Dead Sea region. These clinics offered comprehensive vision care services, including refractive and vision examinations, ophthalmological assessments, ocular imaging, and provision of free glasses. The setup included multiple stations for different vision tests, staffed by an interdisciplinary team of professionals. The study analyzes the effectiveness of these clinics, patient flow challenges, and the psychological impact of vision care in a crisis setting. Results Approximately 800 evacuees received examinations, with around 700 pairs of glasses distributed. Notable cases included emergency referrals for serious conditions and instances where glasses served as psychological support. The operation highlighted the necessity of vision care during crises and its potential psychological and social implications. The clinics successfully provided immediate vision care, but challenges in patient flow and insufficient electronic medical record integration were noted. The experience underscores the importance of prepared eye care interventions in crises. Recommendations for health policy decision-makers include establishing a national emergency vision care network, developing standardized treatment protocols, training local health workers, and raising public awareness about eye health in emergencies. Conclusions The consortium’s effort in providing urgent vision care to evacuees from the Hamas attack on Israel demonstrates the critical role of rapid, organized eye care in crisis situations. Vision care, along with hearing and mobility, is often overlooked during evacuations but is vital for the well-being and survival of evacuees, especially under trying circumstances. This project serves as a model for future humanitarian interventions, emphasizing the importance of addressing overlooked healthcare issues once the immediate crisis has passed, and the need for strategic planning in health care policy for similar emergency scenarios.

The rapid global proliferation of smartphones and their associated information infrastructures has been a defining feature of the past decade's global crises. Yet, while the digital is now a topic of keen interest for scholars working on virtually everything that constitutes the international, the smartphone as an object of study in and of itself has been largely elusive. Moreover, emerging studies of contemporary crisis, such as 'polycrisis', often downplay the role of the digital. How can we conceptualize the ambiguity and ubiquity of the smartphone, as it impacts diverse fields of human action, from war to humanitarianism to democracy? And how can we empirically study this phenomenon and its distributed effects? We contend that smartphones are both embedded in and embed global crises. We conceptualize this as 'global crisis ecologies': new spaces that are not simply geographical, or easily framed in terms of North/South divisions, and that include the informational infrastructures that mediate the way crisis is apprehended. This framing helps us understand how multiple civilian, state and non-state actors at different societal levels participate in crises through everyday smartphone use. It foregrounds how the speed, audio-visual capabilities and inherent scalability of smartphones shape how crises are perceived and managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, militaries have been highly visible elements in the response to health emergencies and in particular disease outbreaks. Although there has been a long tradition of civil–military collaboration in health, COVID–19 saw an unprecedented worldwide use of militaries which occurred within a permissive environment established by narratives of global health, humanitarian intervention and multi-sectorality. This creates a dilemma: militaries will likely be an important element in responding to a major health emergency and this risks not only militarizing health emergencies, but affects the balance between society and the military more generally. Moreover, the response to the COVID pandemic suggested that current emergency planning is often poorly prepared for the use of militaries in health crises, thereby reducing the effectiveness of a response. This article engages with how concerns over the securitization of health have evolved into concerns over militarization, and the question of how militaries might be used effectively in future health emergencies without risking the militarization of health or damaging civil–military relations more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, tens of millions of forcibly displaced people live in informal urban neighbourhoods. Although critical sites for humanitarian and development intervention, municipal authorities may have only a limited presence. Especially in conflict and post‐conflict settings, other non‐state actors emerge to compete for public authority. While the localisation agenda of international donors seeks to better engage local governance actors, little is known about how aid donors take account of non‐state public authority actors as they seek to achieve stability, state building, security and refugee resilience objectives. Accordingly, this study adopts a qualitative methodology to analyse how, why and to what effect donors conceive of and seek to address the legitimacy of state and non‐state urban public authority actors in their response to urban displacement. Analysis of the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan and Lebanon shows that municipalities remain the focus, as donors hold three key assumptions that inform their interventions. Adopting sophisticated tools for understanding non‐state actors' pursuit of public authority, donor interventions seek to undergird, shift, work around, blank or ban their legitimacy‐making practices. We conclude that while donors embrace empirical legitimacy approaches, development and humanitarian responses to urban protracted displacement in marginal urban neighbourhoods are restricted by powerful normative legitimacy approaches rooted in foreign policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly two decades after its formal endorsement by the international community, the Responsibility to Protect is stuck in a quagmire reminiscent of the contentious politics that both preceded and precipitated it. A once ambitious effort to transform notions of responsibility and practices of accountability regarding civilian protection and atrocity prevention, R2P has stagnated to such a degree that some have dismissed it as a dead letter. This research diagnoses the primary cause of that stagnation while also proposing a way forward for resuscitating R2P's normative aims, via a return to R2P's origins as an accountability mechanism for the provision of human rights and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) has officially emerged as a coordinated strategy between the United Nations peacekeeping missions and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to enable access to people in need of assistance in complex emergencies. However, this integrated approach raises serious concerns regarding the respect of traditional principles of humanitarian action: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. While some humanitarian NGOs are opposed to any form of collaboration with the military, others believe this cooperation is very important to enable access and provide aid to civilians in needs. Using the case study of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this article analyses the impact of the CIMIC integrated approach between the United Nations Peacekeeping and Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and humanitarian NGOs on the afore-mentioned principles of humanitarian action. It argues that most humanitarian NGOs that are operating in the Eastern DRC are opposed to the CIMIC’s integrated approach as it pushes them to violate the principles of neutrality, independence, and impartiality. Second, CIMIC increases the danger of humanitarian workers to be targeted by illegal armed groups. Third, despite their integrated approach, both MONUSCO and humanitarian actors have not been able to pacify the Eastern DRC, end the humanitarian needs of the population, or improve their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing prevalence and influence of non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in armed conflict requires a deeper understanding of how their territorial control and contestation affect sub-national healthcare availability and outcomes, particularly with regards to gender dynamics. However, there are gaps in existing research in understanding how NSAG governance influences health care outcomes. Furthermore, a disconnect exists between the literature on international humanitarian interventions, NSAG governance and national health systems. Each perspective tends to prioritise a specific health service provider—whether NSAGs, State actors, or international humanitarian organisations—and often treats populations as homogenous. To address these gaps, we propose a complex adaptive system framework centred on the influence of territorial control for health services in intra-state conflict settings, with a gender lens. This systems framework accounts for the influence of all parties significant for health service delivery. It recognises that those governing the localised health system may differ from those physically delivering health services. Our framework enables empirical examination of health service delivery and outcomes. We apply the framework to three conflict-affected settings (Colombia, Iraq, Mali) using publicly available data and offer recommendations for policymakers and practitioners targeting health service provision in intra-state conflict contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While mental health and psychosocial support receive substantial international attention in humanitarian aid, the well‐being of local aid agency staff themselves is often overlooked. This research, using an exploratory sequential mixed‐methods design composed of two rounds of interviews (N = 23) and a survey (N = 146), highlights the constraints that local staff encounter to access psychosocial support. The study presents a snapshot of what mental health and psychosocial support is available for aid workers active in emergencies. Among local staff, 50 per cent deem the support not to be appropriate. The main causes are a lack of information regarding the available care, a lack of time to access care, and a lack of trust to access services provided through the employer. This paper suggests that agencies can improve local staff welfare by alleviating stressors related to short‐term contracts, granting access to after‐assignment care, and catering to a wider array of coping strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study explores vision care priorities and coping mechanisms for Israeli evacuees and following the October 7th, 2023, attack by Hamas, which displaced 150,000 individuals, with about 15,000 being evacuated to the Dead Sea area. Faced with minimal health care infrastructure in the Dead Sea area and often lacking personal belongings, including eyeglasses and ocular medicine, these evacuees confronted significant vision care challenges. This context sets the stage for investigating the emergency vision care needs and solutions for populations affected by conflict and displacement. Methods: In response to this crisis, a consortium led by Hadassah Academic College's Department of Optometry and the Dept. of Ophthalmology at Hadassah Medical Center established ophthalmic clinics in the Dead Sea region. These clinics offered comprehensive vision care services, including refractive and vision examinations, ophthalmological assessments, ocular imaging, and provision of free glasses. The setup included multiple stations for different vision tests, staffed by an interdisciplinary team of professionals. The study analyzes the effectiveness of these clinics, patient flow challenges, and the psychological impact of vision care in a crisis setting. Results: Approximately 800 evacuees received examinations, with around 700 pairs of glasses distributed. Notable cases included emergency referrals for serious conditions and instances where glasses served as psychological support. The operation highlighted the necessity of vision care during crises and its potential psychological and social implications. The clinics successfully provided immediate vision care, but challenges in patient flow and insufficient electronic medical record integration were noted. The experience underscores the importance of prepared eye care interventions in crises. Recommendations for health policy decision-makers include establishing a national emergency vision care network, developing standardized treatment protocols, training local health workers, and raising public awareness about eye health in emergencies. Conclusions: The consortium's effort in providing urgent vision care to evacuees from the Hamas attack on Israel demonstrates the critical role of rapid, organized eye care in crisis situations. Vision care, along with hearing and mobility, is often overlooked during evacuations but is vital for the well-being and survival of evacuees, especially under trying circumstances. This project serves as a model for future humanitarian interventions, emphasizing the importance of addressing overlooked healthcare issues once the immediate crisis has passed, and the need for strategic planning in health care policy for similar emergency scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on whether military humanitarian intervention and anti-atrocity norms, such as the responsibility to protect, cause perverse incentives, and provocative violence by a rebel group, has yet to reach a consensus. Specifically, existing theories are unable to fully explain why "emboldened" rebel groups provoke the government in some cases but not others. This paper reconciles this unresolved debate by arguing that it is not anti-atrocity norms but the temporary feasibility of humanitarian intervention that induces the potential rebel group to actually provoke the government. The inherent temporariness of the feasibility of large-scale intervention causes a commitment problem: An expectation of a temporary intervention shifts the balance of power toward a potential rebel and opens a quickly closing window of opportunity. A three-player game shows that, among other findings, a higher probability of humanitarian intervention alleviates the potential rebel's incentive to fight, implying that the criticism of anti-atrocity norms is a "false charge." The model also (i) explains why weaker groups can rebel in the shadow of external intervention and (ii) presents a novel implication that lowering the intervention cost can exacerbate the adverse incentive when a domestic commitment problem caused by the consolidation of government power is not severe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The likelihood of success criterion makes armed humanitarian action politically and morally prohibitive. Yet, the just war tradition is designed to confront egregious moral evils. To help reconcile these tensions, this essay questions the applicability of the success principle to armed humanitarian intervention. This questioning provokes reflection on how the just war theory's high threshold for success can rarely be achieved in the direct aftermath of humanitarian interventions. A low likelihood of success post bellum leads to the suggestion that the full demands of just war theory's tranquilitas ordinis definition of peace ought not to be required in the aftermath of armed humanitarian intervention. Guaranteed failure may be a more useful criterion than likelihood of success for interventions aimed at ending acute state-sponsored human rights atrocities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are some violent intrastate crises more likely to prompt humanitarian military interventions than others? States appear to intervene robustly in reaction to some internal conflicts, such as Kosovo, but withhold similar options in more intense conflict, as in Darfur. Much of the research on this 'selectivity gap' focuses on universal norms or geopolitical interests. I, however, argue that the selectivity of these interventions is a product of regional variations interacting with conflict perceptions. This paper introduces a dataset of almost 1000 observations of intrastate armed conflict between 1989 and 2014, paired with international military responses and non-responses, as well as an Intervention Index that accounts for the intensity of military interventions. I find that once a threshold of human suffering is met via the existence of an internal armed conflict, powerful states will intervene depending on whether the conflict occurs in the Western sphere of influence and whether it is denoted as an identity war. A Western region coupled with no perceptions of identity-based civil war prompts the greatest odds of humanitarian military intervention. Such conclusions carry implications on the role of norms and interests in international politics, as biased by region, and for military intervention as a policy choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent and ongoing exodus of Venezuelans to the surrounding Latin American region has sparked international humanitarian intervention. Drawing on research conducted in Brazil in late 2019, this article focuses on the state-led humanitarian response to Venezuelan migration and its collaborative efforts with the military and leading organizations. Looking at two sites of institutional care, I argue that temporal structures created by military-humanitarian agencies work to govern the everyday mobilities of urban migrants living without shelter, who are often framed as criminals or threats within neoliberal securitization narratives. This article further reveals conflicting temporalities with regard to the practice of waiting, whereby the act is viewed as risky when visible in urban public spaces but favored in institutional settings where it can be closely monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the concept of 'police peacekeeping' in United Nations peace operations, focusing on the case of Haiti and the MINUSTAH mission from 2004 to 2017. The author, Lou Pingeot, challenges the idea that police units are inherently pro-civilian and pro-democratic, highlighting how they can perpetuate marginalization, exclusion, and violence. Through empirical research and theoretical analysis, the article reveals how peace operations can reinforce global inequalities and social order, shedding light on the complexities and contradictions of international interventions. This critical examination of peacekeeping practices is essential for policymakers, researchers, and anyone interested in understanding contemporary global security dynamics and postcolonial power structures. [Extracted from the article]

In "The coloniality of humanitarian intervention," Patrick Vernon emphasizes the importance of race, racialization, and coloniality in queer analyses, developing a decolonial queer framework to challenge dominant understandings of development and progress. Vernon explores how UK House of Commons debates on humanitarian intervention reproduce colonial world-views and heteronormative logics, framing figures like the brutal dictator and ISIL terrorist as threats to British values. The book highlights the need to center queer questions of race and coloniality in research, offering a compelling contribution to queer International Relations and emphasizing the queering of racialized bodies through civilizational and developmental logics. [Extracted from the article]

According to international law, the sovereignty of nation-states and the rights of individuals constitute two equally important principles. However, in instances when a state massively violates human rights, then priority is given to the protection of individuals over the self-determination of the state, thereby justifying humanitarian military intervention. This paper presents findings from a survey across 26 countries, analyzing citizen support for such intervention. We find that the majority of respondents supports military intervention to protect human rights. To explain the differences in support, we draw on world society theory and modernization theory. At first sight, world society theory offers a better framework for understanding citizens' attitudes towards military intervention. However, charcateristics derived from modernization theory are affected by a "suppression effect:" individuals living in more modernized countries and holding postmaterialist values endorse enforcing human rights but concurrently reject the use of military force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia's Human Rights Court, established under Law No. 26/2000, has faced criticism due to persistent unresolved cases, highlighting flaws in its legal foundation. The Court's performance revealed that Indonesia has been ineffective in resolving serious human rights violation cases. This research emphasizes two main points: 1) exploring human rights enforcement in Indonesia based on the effectiveness of the Human Rights Court's performance, and 2) scrutinizing the context of humanitarian intervention in cases of gross human rights violations in Indonesia. The article utilized a normative juridical research approach, followed by a descriptive analysis through a literature study. The research illustrated that human rights enforcement in Indonesia was inadequate, often stalling at the inquiry stage. Trials for the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre, East Timor, and Abepura resulted in acquittals, raising doubts about the effectiveness of the Human Rights Court's Law (No. 26/2000). Furthermore, humanitarian intervention was deemed necessary to address these unresolved violations, viewed not as a violation of sovereignty but as a means to enhance human rights protection. This requires national and international cooperation, focusing on resolving cases rather than debating jurisdiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As crises escalate worldwide, there is an increasing demand for innovative solutions to enhance humanitarian outcomes. Within this landscape, digital health tools have emerged as promising solutions to tackle certain health challenges. The integration of digital health tools within the international humanitarian system provides an opportunity to reflect upon the system's paternalistic tendencies, driven largely by Global North organisations, that perpetuate existing inequities in the Global South, where the majority of crises occur. The Participation Revolution, a fundamental pillar of the Localisation Agenda, seeks to address these inequities by advocating for greater participation from crisis-affected people in response efforts. Despite being widely accepted as a best practice; a gap remains between the rhetoric and practice of participation in humanitarian response efforts. This study explores the extent and nature of participatory action within contemporary humanitarian digital health projects, highlighting participatory barriers and tensions and offering potential solutions to bridge the participation gap to enhance transformative change in humanitarian response efforts. Methods: Sixteen qualitative interviews were conducted with humanitarian health practitioners and experts to retrospectively explored participatory practices within their digital health projects. The interviews were structured and analysed according to the Localisation Performance Measurement Framework's participation indicators and thematically, following the Framework Method. The study was guided by the COREQ checklist for quality reporting. Results: Varied participatory formats, including focus groups and interviews, demonstrated modest progress towards participation indicators. However, the extent of influence and power held by crisis-affected people during participation remained limited in terms of breadth and depth. Participatory barriers emerged under four key themes: project processes, health evidence, technology infrastructure and the crisis context. Lessons for leveraging participatory digital health humanitarian interventions were conducting thorough pre-project assessments and maintaining engagement with crisis-affected populations throughout and after humanitarian action. Conclusion: The emerging barriers were instrumental in shaping the limited participatory reality and have implications: Failing to engage crisis-affected people risks perpetuating inequalities and causing harm. To advance the Participation Revolution for humanitarian digital health response efforts, the major participatory barriers should be addressed to improve humanitarian efficiency and digital health efficacy and uphold the rights of crisis-affected people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite frequently providing non-military services in times of crisis, little systematic research has examined the perspectives of crisis-affected community members on the role of armed actors responding to humanitarian crises and public health emergencies. Methods: To address this research gap, 175 interviews were conducted (2020–2021) amongst humanitarian and public health practitioners; armed actors; and crisis-affected community members across three country and four crisis contexts. Specifically, this effort included an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; a refugee crisis on the Jordanian-Syrian border; and a volcanic eruption and COVID-19 outbreak in the Philippines. Data was analysed using grounded theory principles. Results: Crisis-affected community members held diverse views. Non-state armed groups (NSAGs) and government armed actors were characterised as antagonists by some but supportive by others; gender issues were central to perceptions of armed actors, in ways that were both prejudicing and favourable. Overall perception was most closely linked to armed actor roles rather than the relative amount of conflict in a given area. Conclusions: Findings nuance the relevant literature characterizing NSAGs as disruptive agents, and also the relevant literature that does not fully consider the nuances of gender and armed actor roles as deeply relevant to crisis-affected community perspectives on armed actors. These findings have important implications for both policy and academic discourse on militarization and localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex humanitarian emergencies are a main driver of food and nutritional insecurity. Agricultural interventions are key to improving nutrition and food security, and their positive impacts are well-documented in stable developing countries. However, it is unclear if their positive effects on food security hold in complex emergency settings, too. In this paper, we systematically review empirical articles that apply rigorous designs to assess the causal impacts of agricultural interventions on food security, nutrition, or health outcomes in complex humanitarian emergencies. We only find six articles matching these criteria, which have mixed results on dietary diversity and food security, and little evidence on child nutrition. Our review underscores the need for more rigorous research on the impacts of agricultural interventions in complex humanitarian emergency settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanitarian interventions are a military tool for the purpose of stopping an ongoing genocide or crime against humanity, and they present a (shaky) legal alternative to the traditional United Nations Security Council resolution for the use of force. Although their legal authority is not formally cemented in international law, there is a growing acceptance of humanitarian interventions among both the international community and scholars for their ability to stop the worst crimes against humanity. However, that growing legitimacy is a double-edged sword because those shaky legal foundations can--and have--been misused by insincere actors, with Russia being the clearest example. This Note assumes a normative perspective that humanitarian interventions, at their best, are good and should be protected from the misuse of states trying to justify their otherwise illegal use of force. In the Introduction, I give an overview of the context of humanitarian interventions. In Part I, I summarize the legal foundations for the traditional use of force and for humanitarian interventions. In Part II, I give three case examples of the use of humanitarian justifications for the use of force including: India's intervention in Bangladesh, NATO's intervention in Yugoslavia, and Russia's intervention in Ukraine. Finally, in Part III, I present a proposed solution to this problem of misuse. The proposed solution will include (1) allowing the International Court of Justice ("ICJ") to adjudicate the legality of a humanitarian intervention, and (2) giving it a three-factor test to establish a framework that the ICJ may use in its adjudication. The three factors of the test include: (1) whether there exists a breach of the Genocide Convention; (2) whether the intervening state made a formal notification for its intervention; and (3) whether the intervention, from a reasonable observer, would result in a net-positive number of lives saved and not increase regional instability. For this test, if any of the three factors are not met, then the humanitarian justification is invalid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Stuart Mill's harm principle holds that an individual's freedom can only be restricted to prevent harm to others. However, there is an important ambiguity between a strong version, which limits legitimate interference to self-defense and therefore prohibits society from protecting third parties (those who are not its members), and a narrow version, which grants any society universal jurisdiction to prevent nonconsensual harms, no matter who is harmed. Mill sometimes appeals to the strong harm principle to preclude interference, but elsewhere endorses measures (including humanitarian foreign intervention and animal cruelty laws) to protect third parties, suggesting that he subscribes only to the weak harm principle. This ambiguity regarding who it is that society has standing to protect has important implications for the scope of individual freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bosnian 'safe areas' established in the 1990s failed abysmally at civilian protection; indeed, by generating moral hazard, they may have worsened the humanitarian situation. Drawing on declassified documents as well as other primary sources, this article makes the case that US, British, and French support for the safe areas can be understood as an instance of mutual alliance entanglement. The United States and its principal European allies had serious doubts that the safe areas could effectively protect civilians. Nevertheless, the Western powers agreed to support the safe areas diplomatically and by means of a limited NATO airpower commitment. The expectation was that this would allow them to signal alliance unity after a period of transatlantic discord and showcase their ability for joint action. The article sheds new light on the origins of the Bosnian safe areas and illuminates how alliance pressures might pull NATO members toward ill-conceived military interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Westphalia from below: humanitarian intervention and the myth of 1648" by Thomas Peak challenges the traditional view of the Peace of Westphalia as a revolutionary event in global politics. The author argues that the treaties were not as central as previously believed and that other historical periods, such as the French Revolution and the era of Napoleonic warfare, were equally important. The book also explores the concept of dignity and its role in later debates on humanitarian intervention. However, it does not provide a detailed analysis of the actual Westphalia treaties. The article discusses the book "Westphalia From Below" by David Peak, which explores the concept of dignity in the centuries leading up to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The author criticizes the book for being a confirmation of a preconceived theory rather than a rigorous study of intellectual history. The article also highlights the Spanish debate on slavery and its impact on the concept of dignity in Europe. It argues that dignity was a matter of struggle and contest rather than an abstract concept, and discusses the representation of dignity in art and literature during this time period. The article concludes by criticizing Peak's interpretation of the novel "Simplicius Simplicissimus" and his failure to consider earlier debates on slavery and the ideas of the Salamanca School. [Extracted from the article]

What are the distinctive characteristics of the co-design practices at FabLab Nepal, the first humanitarian FabLab in South Asia? This paper presents select case materials from the project '3D Printing for Spinal Cord Injury' to illustrate how FabLab Nepal operates through collaborative, co-design practices and then reflects on how these observations can enrich a more general understanding of what pluriversal design looks like in practice. Co-design initiatives were developed to suit the local practices and situated knowledge of the project context. What was remarkable was that the participants acknowledged that the co-design approach was not novel, however, they did recognise that its impact was beginning to transform everyday lives, in a gradual transition from survival in a disaster situation to local empowerment and capacity building. In this context, pluriversal design was observed to take the form of knowledge exchange and skills development in the use of printing technology, which gave a voice to the patient's needs and desires in the design and manufacturing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ukraine's war of self-defense against Russia is one of the clearest examples of a nation fighting a just war in recent history. Ukraine is clearly entitled to defend itself, and Russia is clearly obligated to cease hostilities, withdraw troops, and make repair. In light of this, some of the most salient moral questions related to Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine involve the international community; namely, what moral duties it has toward Ukraine, especially in light of Russia's extreme and pervasive human rights abuses. The first section of the essay argues that there is a pro tanto moral duty to intervene militarily in Ukraine to stop Russian human rights abuses and ensure that Ukraine achieves a military victory. This duty is grounded in duties of rescue, promissory obligations, and reliance obligations, as well as duties to nations' own citizens and to the international community. The second section of the essay argues that the most relevant consideration in determining whether there is an all-things-considered duty for the international community to intervene militarily in Ukraine is Russia's nuclear coercion and the associated risk of nuclear war. This section highlights the nuclear risks involved in compliance with Russian nuclear coercion, which I argue have been neglected in prominent discussions. The moral stakes involved in this determination are very high, and succumbing to Russian nuclear coercion in the face of massive human rights violations would set a dangerous precedent. Any course of action should be guided by a thorough analysis of all the risks involved, both nuclear and moral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To fulfill their missions, humanitarian organizations are engaged in the production and dissemination of a specific form of knowledge about refugees—namely, evidence. Yet relatively little scholarly work has been done on evidence as a basis for humanitarian decision-making in refugee crises. In this article, we analyze the evidence produced on Syrian refugees in Jordan between 2012 and 2017 by humanitarian actors, its appropriateness and relevance, to assess (a) potential side-effects for refugees and (b) functions for humanitarian organizations. Drawing on 234 documents on Syrian refugees in Jordan collected on major humanitarian platforms and interviews with experts from international organizations, this article shows that, due to the type of evidence produced, Syrian refugees living outside camps are invisibilized and their needs might be less considered in aid projects. The article also shows that some evidence practices are related to the outsourcing of data collection and analysis to specialized actors, and to quantification and standardization of evidence that plays a part in consolidating the legitimacy of humanitarian organizations. Our results highlight the importance of considering this specific form of knowledge when studying humanitarian interventions in international migration and refugee governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the response of Gladstonian ethical Liberals to Britain's relationship with empire from 1895-1906. It discusses the tensions between Liberal internationalism and imperialism and how progressive Liberals understood these concepts during a time of party divisions. The article focuses on the impact of divisions over imperialism on the positions of ethical progressive Liberals and their efforts to articulate a revamped Liberalism that combined liberal morality, politics, and social principles. It also discusses the influence of humanitarian crises on their understanding of British imperial policy and their efforts to reconcile humanitarianism with imperialism. The text provides insight into the complex relationship between liberalism and imperialism during this period. [Extracted from the article]

The protection of civilians has moved from the periphery to the core of public perceptions of what UN peacekeeping is for. At the same time, the operational and tactical arts of civilian protection have become better developed, more sophisticated, and more widely known. This turn towards protection has improved UN peacekeeping and, more importantly, saved civilian lives. This piece shows that together, the essays in this collection suggest a need to think more holistically about by situating practices of UN peacekeeping along a broader continuum of practice comprising local actors, unarmed civilian protectors at one end, a more fulsome understanding of the role of UN police and national authorities in the middle, and – at the other end – difficult questions about humanitarian intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pope Francis's statement about NATO expansion provoking Russia to invade Ukraine raises the question about whether it is legitimate to support NATO generally and its expansion after 1989 in particular. This article argues that the right of nations to self-determination and legitimate defense and the ethic of solidarity as understood in the Catholic social tradition can justify NATO's existence and enlargement. The author concludes that not only was NATO enlargement after 1989 justified, but it should also be open to Ukraine and other countries in the region in accordance with these tenets of Catholic social teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, a localisation agenda was set across the international aid industry with the understanding that humanitarian interventions need to be led by local actors and local communities. Despite international agreements, the localisation efforts are largely failing. This paper demonstrates the challenges that prevent effective collaboration between international humanitarian agencies and crisis-affected communities. It draws on evaluation reports to highlight an inability to learn lessons or follow recommendations from previous crises. Based on the authors' experiences, we present a novel framework for effectively collaborating with crisis-affected communities. The Communities Framework provides a pathway to establishing effective community collaboration and locally owned and led humanitarian interventions. The importance of local leadership, trust building, and local context are at the heart of the framework. In light of the need for a more localised and decolonial humanitarian response, this framework supports humanitarian actors and the affected communities in moving from a charity-led approach to one of mutual aid. The paper draws on alternative notions of compassion from the Global South of contemporary humanitarian interventions as a philosophical foundation for the framework. Caring for others and the world is central to implementing an appropriate and effective humanitarian response. There remains a largely unexplored scope regarding the outcome of resolving crises when both humanitarian actors and affected communities work as equal partners and how that will shape modern humanitarianism as we understand it today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1991, Russia has attempted to maintain its hegemonic role in the region. Although it has primarily relied on military and economic means, Russia's actions have also been accompanied by a normative agenda. Using the Crimean intervention, we outline the basic features of this agenda. Russia maintained that its actions were guided by humanitarian concerns, which was widely rejected as disingenuous. We contend that Russia used the humanitarian frame to circulate a regional alternative to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, a zombie norm it revived from the past to shape the rules of international conduct in its immediate neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NATO's involvement in Kosovo and its transformation from a military intervention to a UN-authorized peacekeeping operation has played a key role in the evolution of the alliance's strategic and political agenda. This article explores the importance of NATO's engagement with Kosovo in retrospect and in relation to the future outlook for European and global peace and security. It focuses on the centrality of this case for NATO's post-Cold War identity and as a key issue in the renewed political conflict associated with the transitional international order. We make three arguments. First, we argue that NATO's involvement in Kosovo has shaped and exacerbated the broader friction associated with the shifting international order. Second, we make the case that this engagement has played a key role in the strategic, political and operational development of NATO and its evolving identity. Thirdly, as a result of this, we argue that NATO's evolution and transformation in Kosovo was guided by what we call the logic of successful security practices. This entails making prudent political choices and implementing practical steps to harmonize divergent strategic interests among NATO members, adapting to shifting security circumstances, and upholding the organization's significance, credibility and influence both within and beyond the Euro-Atlantic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes the visualization of Euro-American medicine and indigenous healing in John Steinbeck's 1941 documentary-drama The Forgotten Village. The movie juxtaposes film and medical discourse as exemplifications of modern, visual culture by showing excerpts from hygiene films and foregrounding medical imagery (e.g., bacteria cultures). The film displaces indigenous medicine by privileging a Euro-American medical model, and the gaze of oppression is perpetuated through humanitarian medical intervention. In short, disease is not simply a material fact but embedded in discourses about community identity, moral values, and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is interested in the role and function of memories in United Nations Security Council debates about humanitarian intervention. It posits that historical experiences and their lessons serve as interpretative devices for the abstract international norms and principles under discussion. The paper speaks of 'international memories' where the meaning and lessons derived from the past coalesce among a group of states. Empirically, its case study explores how the memories of totalitarianism/fascism and colonialism were employed in United Nations (UN) representatives' verbal pleas to intervene in Libya and Syria after the Arab Spring. It finds that those who supported or opposed humanitarian intervention held different interpretations of these memories and their lessons. In each case, however, memories provided essential normative guidance to states when it came to implementing the abstract international principles, norms, and rights that underlie humanitarian intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of government and humanitarian interventions during COVID-19 on food security among vulnerable populations in Nigeria. Data from a survey conducted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in July 2020 was used, with a sample of 4,833 households drawn from various vulnerable groups such as refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Using matching methods, the results indicate that targeted support initiatives helped alleviate immediate food insecurity challenges during the pandemic. This underscores the significance of focused interventions in mitigating the adverse impact of economic shocks on food security for vulnerable populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many nongovernmental forms of business regulation aim at reducing ethical violations in commerce. We argue that such nongovernmental ethics standards, while often laudable, raise their own ethical challenges. In particular, when such standards place burdens upon vulnerable market participants (often, though not always, SMEs), they do so without the backing of traditional legitimate political authority. We argue that this constitutes a structural analogy to wars of humanitarian intervention. Moreover, we show that, while some harms imposed by such standards are desirable, others are best thought of as a form of collateral damage. We thus look at the well‐developed literature on just war theory for inspiration and find that the principles of jus ad bellum and jus in bello contain many insights that can be fruitfully adapted to the case of nongovernmental standard‐setting. Consequently, we propose the Ius ad Normam—a set of principles that should guide would‐be standard‐setters in assessing whether imposing those burdens is ethically justifiable in particular cases. We also discuss how powerful multinational businesses often act simultaneously as standard‐takers and standard‐setters and explore the normative implications of this dual role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]