Paper details
| Paper authors | Emily Scott |
| In panel on | The end for humanitarianism? Budget cuts, altered humanitarianism(s), and affected populations (Roundtable) |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
Abstract
US-based aid funding is collapsing, and foreign aid cuts are being made in favour of defence spending across the UK, Canada, and much of Europe. Emerging donors such as China, Kuwait, Turkey, Qatar, and the UAE are stepping in, eager to gain geostrategic footholds and greater foreign policy influence. However, it would be a mistake to imagine that the institutions that have upheld the post-Cold War international humanitarian order are dissolving. On the part of scholars of humanitarianism, this would be to U-turn on decades of research that has highlighted the enduring power and intractability of humanitarian control and governance, and the challenge of shaking loose or shifting power not only born of funding flows and US hegemony, but of entrenched humanitarian structures, cultures and bureaucracies. It would also require that we accept US and Euro-centric views of the IHO, which has for decades been subject to increasing influence of emerging donors who see opportunity in the relative withdrawal of US and European funds, if not—as attention has failed to shift away—US influence.
Back