Professor Michael Barnett Fall 2010 Honors Program 175 12:45-3:15 Wednesday Humanitarianism Over the last two centuries, and particularly so over the last two decades, there has been an impressive expansion of humanitarianism: the desire to reduce the suffering of distant strangers. There is now a network of states, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations that count themselves as part of the humanitarian sector. These organizations have helped to create, and been nourished by, a complex of normative and legal principles. The existence of this network and normative fabric have created something that resembles, according to Didier Fassin, a humanitarian government: [T]he administration of human collectivities in the name of a higher moral principle that sees the preservation of life and the alleviation of suffering as the highest value of action. While government might be too strong a word, governance certainly is not: human activities are now organized globally to help protect distant strangers and alleviate the causes of suffering. The intertwining of compassion and governance alerts us to the very real possibility that humanitarianism is much more complicated than the simple act of giving the gift of life to those in need. Humanitarianism, after all, is an ism, and all isms tend to be a lot less pure in practice than they are in theory. This course explores the foundations, logics, dilemmas, and consequences of humanitarianism. Section I examines the underlying foundations and logic of humanitarian governance. Humanitarian governance is rooted in the basic supposition that we do and should care for distant strangers. But, historically and practically speaking, caring for distant strangers varies considerably. Accordingly, we consider the forces of compassion the conditions under which we care, whether today s world is more compassionate than it was two centuries ago, and the tensions that are part of most modern discourses of compassion. In other words, we need to adopt an historical approach to humanitarianism. Furthermore, because humanitarian governance is a form of governance, and because all governance operates through different kinds of power, we must explore the forms and legitimating principles of the power in humanitarian governance. The concept of paternalism captures important dimensions of the power of humanitarianism, offering a mixture of care and control. Humanitarian governance justifies its power over others in the name of their welfare but when does concern for others lead us to want to take control of their lives? Section II examines features of creative destruction. Although destruction might not appear creative, many people invest disasters with religious and spiritual significance, e.g. acts of God, and many humanitarians treat moments of destruction as providing opportunities for renewal, redemption, and progress. Creative destruction includes the two elements of humanitarian action to protect those whose lives are at immediate risk and to prevent future suffering by reducing the causes of harm. But how much power, force, and even violence can be justified in the desire to prevent human suffering? Do good intentions lead to good outcomes, and, if not, to what? What is the international community doing when it intervenes, or, rather, what does it think its doing? What is humanitarianism accomplishing? What can it accomplish? Who wins? We ask these guiding questions in a number of subjects: humanitarian intervention; emergency relief; the liberal peace, post-conflict peacebuilding and statebuilding,. One of the consequences of humanitarian actors accumulating more resources, power, and authority is that there is growing cocnern about their (lack of) accountability. What do we mean by accountability? And are all meanings equal? 1
Requirements. All students must come to class prepared to contribute through discussion - which requires you to have read and reflected on the materials assigned for that class session. I will not give a grade for participation, but those who demonstrate through their class participation that they have read and considered the materials will help their final grade. All students must email 3-4 questions or observations that are provoked by the reading by the Tuesday evening immediately prior to Wednesdays class. There are four written assignments for this class. You must do two reaction papers, worth 15% each. There is a term paper that will comprise 40% of your grade. Lastly, there is a final exam worth 30% of your grade. Readings. There is a lot of reading in this course, including books, articles, essays, and reports. You must do the reading for each week before coming to seminar. The reading will be on reserve and the books available for purchase. Séverine Autesserre. 2010. The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding. NY: Cambridge University Press. Michael Barnett and Tom Weiss, eds. 2008. Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Gareth Evans. 2008. The Responsibility to Protect, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Press. Didier Fassin and Richard Rechtman 2009. The Empire of Trauma: An Inquiry into the Condition of Global Victimhood. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Linda Polman. 2010. The Crisis Caravan: Whats Wrong with Humanitarian Aid? New York: Metropolitan Books. Office Hours. My office is at the Institute for Global and International Studies, ESIA, and my office hours are Wednesdays 10:00-12:00. The best way to reach me is either after class or by email at barnett@gwu.edu. My phone number is 994-9301. September 1 Introduction September 8 Why Care? Section I: The Principles and Logics of Humanitarian Governance Carlo Ginzburg. 1994. "Killing a Chinese Mandarin: The Moral Implications of Distance," Critical Inquiry, 21, 1, August, 46-60. Deen Chatterjee, ed., 2001. The Ethics of Assistance (NY: Cambridge University Press). Read the following: Singer, Outsiders: Our Obligations to those Beyond Our Borders and Arenson, Moral Limits on the Demands for Beneficence. Tony Vaux. 2001. Introduction, in The Selfish Altruist (London: Earthscan), 1-17. September 15 Humanitarianism: Its Goals and Principles 2
Read the following in Barnett and Weiss, Humanitarianism in Question: Barnett and Weiss, Humanitarianism: A Brief History of the Present; Jennifer Rubenstein, The Distributive Commitments of International NGOs; and Stephen Hopgood, Saying No to Walmart? Money and Morality in Professional Humanitarianism; and Redfield, Sacrifice, Triage, and Global Humanitarianism. International Committee of the Red Cross. Codes of Conduct. James Orbinski. 1999. Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Oslo, Norway, November 10. Didier Fassin. The Heart of Humaneness: The Moral Economy of Humanitarian Intervention, in D. Fassin and M. Pandolfi, eds., Contemporary States of Emergency: The Politics of Military and Humanitarian Intervention (NY: Zone Books), pp. 269-93. George Orwell. 1949. Reflections on Gandhi, Partisan Review. http://www.orwell.ru/library/reviews/gandhi/english/e_gandhi Short Paper Topic #1: Should impartiality, aid based on need, be the core of humanitarianism? September 22 Nineteenth Century Roots of Humanitarianism Kevin Rozario. 2007. Read Introduction: The Golden Age as Catastrophe, in his The Culture of Calamity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Calhoun. The Imperative to Reduce Suffering. In Barnett and Weiss. Lynn Hunt. 2006. Introduction: We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident, in her Inventing Human Rights (NY: Norton Press), pp. 15-34. Thomas Haskell. 1985. Capitalism and the Origins of the Humanitarian Sensibility, Part 1, American Historical Review, 90, April, 339-61. September 29 Twentieth Century Roots of Humanitarianism James Fearon. The Rise of Emergency Aid. In Barnett and Weiss. Gilbert Rist. 2002. The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith (NY: Zed Books, 2002), chapters 3-5. Elizabeth Borgwardt. 2005. Read Forging a New American Multilateralism, in her A New Deal for the World: Americas Vision for Human Rights (Cambridge: Harvard University Press). October 6 Humanitarian Governance? Jean Herve Bradol. 2004. The Sacrificial International Order and Its Goals and Principles, in Fabrice Weissman, ed., In the Shadow of Just Wars : Violence, Politics, and Humanitarian Action (Ithaca: Cornell University Press). Alex de Waal. 1998. Humanitarian International, in his Famine Crimes (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press), 65-85. Didier Fassin. 2007. Humanitarianism: a Nongovernmental Government, in Michael Feher, ed., Nongovernmental Politics. NY: Zone Books. Denis Thompson. 2005. Paternalistic Power, in his Politics Ethics and Public Office (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), pp. 148-77. Lawrence McFalls. 2010. Benevolent Dictatorship: The Formal Logic of Humanitarian Government, in D. Fassin and M. Pandolfi, eds., Contemporary States of Emergency, 317-34. Paul Harvey, et al. 2010. The State of the Humanitarian System, London: ALNAP. http://www.alnap.org/pool/files/alnap-sohs-final.pdf 3
Section II: Creative Destruction October 13 Humanitarian Intervention Evans, The Responsibility to Protect: Chapters 1-6, 10. Alex de Waal. 2010. An Emergency Imperium? Power and Principle in the Humanitarian International, in D. Fassin and M. Pandolfi, eds., Contemporary States of Emergency: The Politics of Military and Humanitarian Intervention (NY: Zone Books), pp. 295-316. Hugo Slim. 2001. Military Intervention to Protect Human Rights: An NGO Perspective, Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, http://www.jha.ac/articles/a084.htm Short Paper Choice #2: Is the Responsibility to Protect a norm? October 20 Emergency Relief Fiona Terry. 2002. Condemned to Repeat? Read Chapters One and Six. Hugo Slim. 1997. Doing the Right Thing: Relief Agencies, Moral Dilemmas, and Moral Responsibility in Political Emergencies and War, Disasters, 21, 3, 244-57. Linda Polman. Read Entire Book. October 27 Humanitarian-Military Relations Michael Barnett and Jack Snyder. The Grand Strategy of Humanitarian Action. In Barnett and Weiss. Short Paper #3: What, if any, role should the military have in the delivery of humanitarian assistance? November 3 Post-Conflict Order Autissere: Read Entire Book. November 10 Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Good Intentions Ashraf Ghani and Claire Lockhart. Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World (NY: Oxford University Press, 2008), chaps.7 & 8. Charles Call. 2008. Building States to Build Peace? in Charles Call with Vanessa Wyth, eds., Building States to Build Peace (Boulder:: Lynne Reinner). Tim Sisk and Roland Paris, Confronting the Contradictions, in Roland Paris and Tim Sisk, eds., The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: The Long Road to Peace Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations (NY: Routledge, 2008). Edward Newman. 2009. Liberal Peacebuilding Debates, in E. Newman, R. Paris, and O. Richmond, eds., New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding (NY: UNU Press), pp. 26-53. 4
Short Paper Choice #4: You are the head of a post-conflict unit in [insert country of your choice]. Write a 3-4 page briefing paper identifying which post-conflict activities during the first six months require most weight and why. November 17 Post Conflict Reconstruction: Good Outcomes? James Ferguson, 1994. The Anti-Politics Machine, and Epilogue, in his The Anti- Politics Machine: "Development," Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 251-89. Michael Barnett and Christoph Zuercher. 2008. The Peacebuilders Contract, in Roland David Chandler. 2006. Empire in Denial: The Politics of State-Building. London: Pluto Press. Read Chapters 1, 3. Read the following in E. Newman, R. Paris, and O. Richmond, eds., New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding (NY: UNU Press, 2009): Paris, Does Liberal Peacebuilding Have a Future? Salih, A Critique of the Political Economy of the Liberal Peace; Hughes, `We Just Take What They Offer: Community Empowerment in Post-War Timor Leste; and Peou, Reexamining Liberal Peacebuilding in the Light of Realism and Pragmatism. December 1 Saving Souls Fassin and Rachtman. Empire of Trauma (entire book except Part Two). December 8 Accountability Stein. Accountability. In Barnett and Weiss. Humanitarian Accountability Partnership. 2009. Humanitarian Accountability Report. http://www.hapinternational.org/pool/files/a-the-2009-humanitarian-accountability-report.pdf. ALNAP. 2010. Please browse through its Haiti portal. http://www.alnap.org/current/haitilearningportal.aspx Final Papers Due. 5