Geopolitic and Humanitarian Action

Teacher(s)

Liegeois Michel ; Prelz Oltramonti Giulia (compensates Liegeois Michel) ;

Language

Français

Main themes

The development of humanitarian action from 1945 to the present day, as a function of the de-velopment of conflicts. - Through a detailed geo-political analysis of conflicts, to study the various conjunctures that have led to the deployment of humanitarian action. A distinction needs to be drawn between mili-tary-humanitarian operations carried out on the initiative of states (e.g. "Provide Comfort" in Iraqi Kurdistan), actions recommended by the United Nations under Chapter VII of the UN Charter as a way of re-establishing peace (e.g. "Restore Hope" en Somalia), peacekeeping missions carried out by the Blue Helmets (e.g. FORPRONU in former Yugoslavia), and one-off NGO activities to provide emergency aid (e.g. various actions by MSF in Africa, and "indiscriminate" multilateral action by the IRCR). - the meaning and non-meaning of the "right" and the "duty" to engage in humanitarian interfer-ence. - The distinction between humanitarian action and humanitarianism. - Case-study: Operation Turquoise in Rwanda.

Aims

Using as its basis a definition of geo-politics by Yves Lacoste ("knowing how to think" of the space in which to elucidate the struggles that unfold, and to explain the perception of the space of the actors who oppose one another there), the course focuses on being able to identify the geo-political issues in present-day international conflicts, and changes in the kind of conflict that in turn brings about change in the perception of humanitarian action. The aim is to be able to situate humanitarian aid among the ways of managing conflicts occurring at international level, and identifying the ambiguities of humanitarian aid in this setting.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

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