Humanitarian Assistance and Conflict: A-State-of-the-Art Report
Abstract
The rapid growth of international aid allocated to "complex humanitarian emergencies" has led to parallel calls for preventive action. It is also asked how humanitarian assistance and other forms of international civilian presence can help prevent and mitigate violent conflict. The key questions raised in the report are:What do we know about how, and why, humanitarian presence may help prevent or contain conflict? What are the conditions for failure or success? Can humanitarian presence have counterproductive effects and exacerbate conflict? How can unintended consequences be avoided?The report reviews the relationship between humanitarian assistance and violent conflict. It is basically a "state-of-the-art review, supplemented with data drawn from some classic cases and interviews with Norwegian NGOs.The report is based on work carried out by Bente Hybertsen and Gro Tjore, research assistants at the Chr. Michelsen Institute, with assistance from Emery Brusset and Bruce Jones, Ph.D. students at the London School of Economics. Astri Suhrke, Senior Researcher at the. Chr. Michelsen Institute was team leader. The report was prepared with financial assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Publisher
Chr. Michelsen InstituteSeries
Research reportR 1998: 2