The reconfiguration of humanitarism in the Post-Cold War World. An analysis of the Political Instrumentation of Humanitarian Action

Abstract

The collapse of the Socialist regimes and the end of the Cold War gave an impulse to a new world order in which there has been a rupture with the traditional ways of humanitarian work. In that context states are using humanitarism like a tool to look for geostrategic, political and economic goals. Political usage of humanitarian action, alongside other elements, has threatened the traditional principles that are basis of humanitarism. It has started a debate around the viability and the appropriateness of those principles and has caused what has come to be known as the “humanitarism crisis”.