Armed Humanitarians

Armed Humanitarians PDF Author: Nathan Hodge
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608194450
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
In May 2003, President George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq. But while we won the war, we catastrophically lost the peace. Our failure prompted a fundamental change in our foreign policy. Confronted with the shortcomings of "shock and awe," the U.S. military shifted its focus to "stability operations": counterinsurgency and the rebuilding of failed states. In less than a decade, foreign assistance has become militarized; humanitarianism has been armed. Combining recent history and firsthand reporting, Armed Humanitarians traces how the concepts of nation-building came into vogue, and how, evangelized through think tanks, government seminars, and the press, this new doctrine took root inside the Pentagon and the State Department. Following this extraordinary experiment in armed social work as it plays out from Afghanistan and Iraq to Africa and Haiti, Nathan Hodge exposes the difficulties of translating these ambitious new theories into action. Ultimately seeing this new era in foreign relations as a noble but flawed experiment, he shows how armed humanitarianism strains our resources, deepens our reliance on outsourcing and private contractors, and leads to perceptions of a new imperialism, arguably a major factor in any number of new conflicts around the world. As we attempt to build nations, we may in fact be weakening our own. Nathan Hodge is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who specializes in defense and national security. He has reported from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, and a number of other countries in the Middle East and former Soviet Union. He is the author, with Sharon Weinberger, of A Nuclear Family Vacation, and his work has appeared in Slate, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and many other newspapers and magazines.

Armed Humanitarians

Armed Humanitarians PDF Author: Nathan Hodge
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608194450
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book

Book Description
In May 2003, President George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq. But while we won the war, we catastrophically lost the peace. Our failure prompted a fundamental change in our foreign policy. Confronted with the shortcomings of "shock and awe," the U.S. military shifted its focus to "stability operations": counterinsurgency and the rebuilding of failed states. In less than a decade, foreign assistance has become militarized; humanitarianism has been armed. Combining recent history and firsthand reporting, Armed Humanitarians traces how the concepts of nation-building came into vogue, and how, evangelized through think tanks, government seminars, and the press, this new doctrine took root inside the Pentagon and the State Department. Following this extraordinary experiment in armed social work as it plays out from Afghanistan and Iraq to Africa and Haiti, Nathan Hodge exposes the difficulties of translating these ambitious new theories into action. Ultimately seeing this new era in foreign relations as a noble but flawed experiment, he shows how armed humanitarianism strains our resources, deepens our reliance on outsourcing and private contractors, and leads to perceptions of a new imperialism, arguably a major factor in any number of new conflicts around the world. As we attempt to build nations, we may in fact be weakening our own. Nathan Hodge is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who specializes in defense and national security. He has reported from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, and a number of other countries in the Middle East and former Soviet Union. He is the author, with Sharon Weinberger, of A Nuclear Family Vacation, and his work has appeared in Slate, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and many other newspapers and magazines.

Armed Humanitarians

Armed Humanitarians PDF Author: Robert C. DiPrizio
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801870675
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Since the end of the Cold War, the US military has found itself embroiled in many "operations other than war" - most controversially, in humanitarian interventions. DiPrizio examines the factors that lay behind decisions to send in troops, analyzing the decision-making process and its constraints.

Armed Humanitarians

Armed Humanitarians PDF Author: Nathan Hodge
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 160819017X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
A provocative critique of the United States's foreign policy and its experiment in armed nation-building traces the development and shortfalls of current theories about stability operations, militarized foreign assistance and armed humanitarianism.

Humanitarian Negotiations with Armed Groups

Humanitarian Negotiations with Armed Groups PDF Author: Ashley Jonathan Clements
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100076897X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Humanitarians operate on the frontlines of today’s armed conflicts, where they regularly negotiate to provide assistance and to protect vulnerable civilians. This book explores this unique and under-researched field of humanitarian negotiation. It details the challenges faced by humanitarians negotiating with armed groups in Yemen, Myanmar, and elsewhere, arguing that humanitarians typically negotiate from a position of weakness. It also explores some of the tactics and strategies they use to overcome this power asymmetry to reach more favorable agreements. The author applies these findings to broader negotiation scholarship and investigates the implications of this research for the field and practice of humanitarianism. This book also demonstrates how non-state actors – both humanitarians and armed groups – have become increasingly potent diplomatic actors. It challenges traditional state-centric approaches to diplomacy and argues that non-state actors constitute an increasingly crucial vector through which international relations are replicated and reconstituted during contemporary armed conflict. Only by accepting these changes to the nature of diplomacy itself can the causes, symptoms, and solutions to armed conflict be better managed. This book will be of interest to scholars concerned with conflict resolution, negotiation, and mediation, as well as to humanitarian practitioners themselves.

The military-humanitarian complex in Afghanistan

The military-humanitarian complex in Afghanistan PDF Author: Eric James
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526123789
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Violent conflict brings together two seemingly disparate groups: humanitarians and soldiers. This mixes and convolutes agendas, blurring lines that are often perceived to be sacrosanct. Delving deeply into the history and reasons of why these two groups work in close proximity, this study provide a unique insight into the history, ethical dilemmas and policy conundrums when aid workers operate close to the military. Using Afghanistan as a case study, analytical rigour, deep primary research and "field" knowledge are combined in an exceptional contribution to this important area. This book gives scholars and practitioners alike a nuanced perspective on the challenges faced by aid workers, military personnel and decision-makers alike in countries affected by violent conflicts, hosting foreign military interventions and receiving international aid.

Modern Warfare

Modern Warfare PDF Author: Benjamin Perrin
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774822341
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
The face of modern warfare is changing as more and more humanitarian organizations, private military companies, and non-state armed groups enter complex security environments such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti. Although this shift has been overshadowed by legal issues connected to the War on Terror and intervention in countries such as Rwanda and Sudan, it has caused some to question the relevance of the laws of war. Modern Warfare explores the law’s failure -- and potential -- to ensure compliance in the context of a changing military landscape; by doing so, it opens a path to preventing further unnecessary suffering and violence.

Psychosocial Concepts in Humanitarian Work with Children

Psychosocial Concepts in Humanitarian Work with Children PDF Author: Program on Forced Migration and Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309089336
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
This report is concerned with reviewing psychosocial concepts in research related to humanitarian work, with particular emphasis on research related to children affected by prolonged violence and armed conflict.

The Ethics of Armed Humanitarian Intervention

The Ethics of Armed Humanitarian Intervention PDF Author: C. A. J. Coady
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Humanitarian intervention
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description


Negotiating Survival

Negotiating Survival PDF Author: Ashley Jackson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197644147
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Two decades on from 9/11, the Taliban now control more than half of Afghanistan. Few would have foreseen such an outcome, and there is little understanding of how Afghans living in Taliban territory have navigated life under insurgent rule. Based on over 400 interviews with Taliban and civilians, this book tells the story of how civilians have not only bargained with the Taliban for their survival, but also ultimately influenced the course of the war in Afghanistan. While the Taliban have the power of violence on their side, they nonetheless need civilians to comply with their authority. Both strategically and by necessity, civilians have leveraged this reliance on their obedience in order to influence Taliban behaviour. Challenging prevailing beliefs about civilians in wartime, Negotiating Survival presents a new model for understanding how civilian agency can shape the conduct of insurgencies. It also provides timely insights into Taliban strategy and objectives, explaining how the organisation has so nearly triumphed on the battlefield and in peace talks. While Afghanistan's future is deeply unpredictable, there is one certainty: it is as critical as ever to understand the Taliban--and how civilians survive their rule.

Learning From Somalia

Learning From Somalia PDF Author: Walter S Clarke
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 042997891X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 527

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Book Description
This book examines the intervention in Somalia and draws lessons for future peacekeeping operations, analyzing many aspects of peacemaking that are not well understood, including efforts to rebuild the police, the dynamics of the economy, and the performance of European armies.