The Politics and Policies of Relief, Aid and Reconstruction: Contrasting Approaches to Disasters and Emergencies

278 Pages·2012·1.459 MB·English

by  Fulvio Attin`(eds.)

The Politics and Policies of Relief,
Aid and Reconstruction
Also by Fulvio Attinà
THE GLOBAL POLITICAL SYSTEM
The Politics and
Policies of Relief,
Aid and Reconstruction
Contrasting Approaches to Disasters
and Emergencies
Edited by
Fulvio Attinà
Jean Monnet Chair and Professor of Political Science,
University of Catania, Italy
Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion © Fulvio Attinà 2012
All remaining chapters © respective authors 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-1-137-02672-9
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2012 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-43936-2 ISBN 978-1-137-02673-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137026736
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface and Acknowledgements viii
Notes on Contributors ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
Part I Theories and Approaches
1 Disaster and Emergency Policies at the International and
Global System Levels 21
Fulvio Attinà
2 Conceptualizing and Confronting Disasters: A Panorama
of Social Science Research and International Policies 42
Sandrine Revet
3 Theoretical Departures to Disasters and Emergencies 57
Mika Aaltola
4 The Nexus between Security, Development and
Humanitarianism: A Critical Appraisal of
Multi-dimensional Peace Missions 76
Maria Raquel Freire, Paula Duarte Lopes and
Daniela Nascimento
5 Risk Societies in World Politics: Overcoming
Disasters Together 9 3
Nora Vanaga
Part II Case Studies
6 Catastrophe and Containment: A Critical Analysis
of the US Response to the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti 113
Annica Moore
v
vi Contents
7 United Nations–European Union Cooperation
in Aid, Relief and Reconstruction – The Haiti Case 1 33
Claudia Morsut and Maite J. Iturre
8 The Politics of Catastrophe: Coping with
‘Humanitarianism’ in Post-tsunami Sri Lanka 1 51
Mara Benadusi
9 The UN and Genocide: A Comparative Analysis
of Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia 173
Sabrina Stein
10 H umanitarian NGOs in Peace Building and
Reconstruction Operations 191
Daniela Irrera
11 ‘TragiCIMICal’: An Attempt at Civil and
Military Cooperation in Lebanon 211
Rosario F. Sapienza
Concluding Remarks 236
References 2 40
Index 261
Illustrations
Table
9.1 UNPROFOR and UNAMIR 186
Figures
4.1 An agenda for peace 79
10.1 G eographical basis of NGOs 196
10.2 The identity of NGOs 197
10.3 Definitions of NGO self-ascribed tasks 198
10.4 Donors to NGOs 199
10.5 T he presence of NGOs by area 200
10.6 Dialogue on humanitarian issues 201
10.7 Dialogue with IGOs: satisfaction level 202
10.8 Relations with military peace missions 203
vii
Preface and Acknowledgements
This book is the product of an international group of scholars who
share an interest in the same phenomenon and examine it from
different, but not distant, scientific perspectives. The phenomenon is
aid and assistance to the victims of disasters, whether the causes of
these disasters are primarily natural events or the will and (in)action
of individuals and human groups. None of the authors of this book
has ever been caught in the middle of a disaster but some have visited
post-disaster areas to witness the transformation caused by the disaster
and the change brought about by the international aid and donors.
Still, the authors of this book share a compassion for the victims as well
as the belief that helping people to be safe, and survive and recover,
from a disaster is a duty that cannot be kept out of the political sphere
of the u nique global system we live in nowadays.
The authors of this book have worked in the disaster research field over
different periods of time and with different methods of investigation.
They come together as a group in recognizing that knowledge of the
international policymaking of disaster aid today is poor and worthy of
being promoted – and the sooner the better. Scientific conferences over
the past few years have been the venues for their consultations and
common projects. This book is the first and, we expect, not the only
outcome of their scientific interaction. The academic institution of
each author has supported the individual research projects and made
possible the group meetings. The gratitude of the authors, however,
extends beyond their institutions and reaches, in particular, the
Palgrave Macmillan editorial managers of the International Relations
Division, who have strongly supported this book project.
viii
Contributors
Mika Aaltola is the programme director of the Global Security
research programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
His current research focuses on securing access to global commons
and on ethics, politics, and emergencies. Other topics of expertise
are US domestic and foreign affairs, the international system, global
governance, major power relations, Finnish foreign policy, the chan-
ging meaning of the concept of security, cyber security, the role of
religions, political violence, humanitarianism, catastrophe policy, and
pandemic crisis. His most recent book is Understanding the Politics of
Pandemic Scares (2012).
Fulvio Attinà is Professor of Political Science and International Relations
and the Jean Monnet Chair of European Union Politics at the University
of Catania, Italy. He was president of the Italian Association of Political
Science from 2005 to 2007, and a member of the governing bodies of
professional associations such as the European Consortium for Political
Research, from 2000 to 2006, and the International Studies Association,
from 1999 to 2001. He has been a visiting professor at universities in
America, Asia and Europe. He is the author of T he Global Political System
(2011; previous versions published in Italy, Spain and Russia), and the
co-editor of M ultilateral Security and ESDP Operations (2010).
Mara Benadusi is an anthropologist, a researcher and lecturer at
the University of Catania in the Faculty of Political Sciences and a
member of the teaching staff of the PhD programme in Anthropology
and Historical-linguistic Studies at the University of Messina, Italy.
Her research has been focused on educational ethnography, disasters
and humanitarian aid. Among numerous articles and books, she has
edited three volumes: D islocare l’antropologia: Connessioni disciplinari e
nuovi spazi epistemologici (2008); Antropomorfismi: Traslare, interpretare e
praticare conoscenze organizzative e di sviluppo (2010); and D isaster,
Development and Humanitarian Aid: New Challenges for Anthropology
(2011) with C. Brambilla and B. Riccio. She is currently working on the
local and global situation generated by the tsunami that affected Sri
Lanka in 2004.
Paula Duarte L opes is Assistant Professor of International Relations
at the School of Economics and a researcher at the Centre for Social
ix