School of Politics and International Studies

The Biopolitics of Humanitarian Assistance: 'Caring' for the Populations of Afghanistan and Belarus

Humanitarian action, both normative and material, has its roots in several traditions – such as charity, assistance to war victims, disaster relief and human rights – and its origins can be traced back to ancient civilisations and all major world religions. During its evolution it has had many diverse reincarnations, such as the humanitarian colonialism of the 19th century, and assistance and protection of war victims enshrined in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and 1977 Additional Protocols. For most of the 20th century, however, humanitarian action represented a rather modest vocation, undertaken by a select few following the humanitarian imperative of providing assistance wherever it is needed in accordance with well-defined principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence, those four ICRC principles that were the most widely recognised and accepted.

However, it has been suggested that the nature of humanitarian assistance has been changing since the 1990s. The rise of the 'new' humanitarianism has been seen by some as a radical departure from the traditions of a principled and limited life-saving effort. Attempts to account for and understand the changes in the nature of humanitarian assistance continue to generate debates involving academics and practitioners alike and result in a growing number of publications of various kinds. This project represents an attempt to contribute to the scholarship by offering an interpretation of the changing nature of humanitarian assistance, as reflected in the policies and practices of the 'new' humanitarianism, from the 'biopolitical' perspective.

The objectives of the research are:

• to identify the changes in the nature of humanitarian assistance that have been occurring since the mid 1990s, and to determine: 1) whether these changes represent a break with previous policies and practices, or rather a shift along the continuum; 2) how pervasive these changes are; and 3) whether the 'new' humanitarianism is an adequate term to be used with respect to these changes;
• to engage with the main concepts used in theorising about biopower and biopolitics and to consider previous examples of their application to International Relations (IR) issues;
• to identify the practices of the ‘new’ humanitarianism in Afghanistan and Belarus and to interpret them from the biopolitical perspective;
• to consider the wider implications of the biopolitical nature of humanitarian assistance; and
• to reflect on the insights provided by the biopolitical perspective.