Paper details
| Paper authors | Clothilde Facon-Salelles |
| In panel on | Protecting civilians in a changing world order |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
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Abstract
This presentation aims to critically analyses practices of humanitarian diplomacy implemented by international humanitarian actors – including United Nations agencies, international NGOs and Gulf organisations – to negotiate the control of their operations in two semi-authoritarian states, Lebanon and Turkey. Its aim is to better understand the power of these entities, an important issue as it touches on their ability to keep operating while they are more than ever needed.
Existing explanations tend to exaggerate the power of humanitarian actors by presenting them as the agents of a supposedly hegemonic liberal humanitarianism and by disregarding the constraints of their operational environment, especially in semi-authoritarian states. Building on a relational view of power, this project pursues a more nuanced appreciation of their power and assesses the impact of their engagement in diplomatic practices on power dynamics with their host states.
To this end, the project will identify these diplomatic practices; and unravel the impact of humanitarian diplomacy on the legitimacy of both humanitarian actors and the host state and thereby seek to establish how it relates to the consolidation of semi-authoritarian polities. The purpose of the project is to theorise the power dynamics between international humanitarian actors and semi-authoritarian states in a way that does not presuppose the hegemony of liberal humanitarianism. The methodological approach is qualitative, with data gathered through semi-structured interviews with international humanitarian actors.
