Event: Civ-Mil Space & Humanitarian Response

January 19, 2012

Crowded Civil-Military Space: Evolution of Humanitarian Crises and Response

3P and InterAction hosted a roundtable discussion with Feinstein International Center of Tufts University to discuss their in-depth research and resulting policy implication for the evolving field of humanitarian response and the link between humanitarian, development and security goals and actors. 

This roundtable discussion featured Peter Walker, Director and Professor of Nutrition & Human Security and Antonio Donini, Senior Research and Instructor, both from the Feinstein International Center.  Walker and Donini presented Feinstein’s research on three broad areas: 

1) Working with Complexity

2) Aid and Military Sharing Space 

3) Working with the State. 

Presentations were drawn from their respective research reports on Professionalizing the Humanitarian Sector (2010) and Winning Hearts and Minds: Examining the Relationship between Aid and Security in Afghanistan (Jan 2012) along with their forthcoming book on the instrumentalization of aid.

Click here to see the PowerPoint presentation Working with the State.

Click here to see the PowerPoint presentation Perception of Security and Aid.

1) Working with Complexity: How is the humanitarian enterprise handling the complexity it faces, with more frequent and more types of crises, competition between and amongst local and international actors, and differences between state vs non-state humanitarian approaches?

2) Aid and Military Sharing Space: What does research suggest about the use of humanitarian and development projects in the service of counterinsurgency to bring or maintain security in strategically important environments, and by "winning hearts and minds" undermine support for radical, insurgent, or terrorist groups?

3) Working with the State: With sovereignty and nationalism increasingly impacting on the practice of humanitarian action, how are tensions between “state avoiding” and the “state embracing” agendas affecting humanitarianism?

Peter Walker and Antonio Donini from Tufts University Feinstein International Center talk with Worldvision's Randy Tift in front of InterAction's memorial to Fallen Colleagues whose lives were cut short while providing relief and development services around the world."