Humanitarian Shell Games: Whither UN Reform?

1 Kofi Annan, Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform (New York: United Nations, 1977); references are made to paragraph numbers throughout.

2 Raimo Väyrynen, The Age of Humanitarian Emergencies, Research for Action 25 (Helsinki: World Institute for Development Economics Research, June 1996).

3 Cindy Collins & Thomas G. Weiss, An Overview and Assessment of 1989-1996 Peace Operations Publication, Occasional Paper #28 (Providence, RI: Watson Institute, 1997).

4 Frederick C. Cuny, `Dilemmas of Military Involvement in Humanitarian Relief', in Leon Gordenker & Thomas G. Weiss, eds, Soldiers, Peacekeepers and Disasters (London: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 52-81.

5 John B. Hunt, `OOTW: A Concept in Flux', Military Review, vol. 76, no. 5, 1996, pp. 3-9.

6 Jarat Chopra, `Back to the Drawing Board', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 51, no. 2, 1995, pp. 29-35; and `The Space of Peace Maintenance', Political Geography, vol. 15, no. 3/4, 1996, pp. 335-357.

7 Chris Seiple, The U.S. Military/NGO Relationship in Humanitarian Interventions (Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War College, 1996), pp. v-vi. See also Robert D. Kaplan, `Fort Leavenworth and the Eclipse of Nationhood', The Atlantic Monthly, September 1996, pp. 75-90. More generally, see Jon Bennet, Meeting Needs: NGO Coordination in Practice (London: Earthscan, 1995) and NGO Coordination at Field Level: A Handbook (Oxford: Parchment, 1994).

8 Larry Minear & Thomas G. Weiss, Mercy Under Fire: War and the Global Humanitarian Community (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1995); Thomas G. Weiss & Cindy Collins, Humanitarian Challenges and Intervention: The Dilemmas of Help (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996); Jonathan Moore, The UN and Complex Emergencies (Geneva: UNRISD, 1996); and Edward Marks, Complex Emergencies: Bureaucratic Arrangements in the U.N. Secretariat (Washington, DC: National Defense University, 1996).

9 Adam Roberts, Humanitarian Action in War: Aid, Protection and Impartiality in a Policy Vacuum, Adelphi Paper 305 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).

10 As this article was going to press, the General Assembly approved the name change to the Office of the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordinator, which resulted in the awkward acronym of OUNHAC. Sergio Vieira de Mello, the new Under-Secretary-General, appealed to Kofi Annan to simplify the title and office to the `Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Assistance' (or OCHA). In early 1998 and pending a decision, many staff continued to use `DHA' in their correspondence. In any case, `humanitarian shell games' remains an apt title for this article.

11 See Alan James, `Humanitarian Aid Operations and Peacekeeping', in Eric A. Belgrad & Nitza Nachmias, eds, The Politics of International Humanitarian Aid Operations (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997), pp. 53-63; Michael Pugh, `Humanitarianism and Peacekeeping', Global Society, vol. 10, no. 3, 1996, pp. 205-224; and F. T. Liu, `Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance', in Gordenker & Weiss, eds, Soldiers, Peacekeepers and Disasters, pp. 33-51.

12 See Anthony McDermott, ed., Humanitarian Force, PRIO Report 4/97 (Oslo: International Peace Research Institute, 1997); and Thomas G. Weiss, `A Research Note about Military-Civilian Humanitarianism: More Questions than Answers', Disasters, vol. 21, no. 2, 1997, pp. 95-117.

13 Jacques Cuénod, `Coordinating United Nations Humanitarian Assistance', RPG Focus (Washington, DC: Refugee Policy Group, 1993).

14 Brian Urquhart & Erskine Childers, A World in Need of Leadership: Tomorrow's United Nations - A Fresh Appraisal (Uppsala: Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, 1996).

15 Gil Loescher, `The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Post-Cold War Era', in Belgrad & Nachmias, eds, The Politics of International Humanitarian Aid Operations, pp. 157-170, 164.

16 Andrew S. Natsios, U.S. Foreign Policy and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Humanitarian Relief in Complex Emergencies (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997), p. 83.

17 Thomas G. Weiss, David P. Forsythe & Roger A. Coate, The United Nations and Changing World Politics, 2nd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997).

18 For a promotional view of its own activities, see UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs, Humanitarian Report 1997 (New York: United Nations, 1997).

19 Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda, The International Response to Conflict and Genocide: Lessons from the Rwandan Experience (Copenhagen: Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda, March 1995), 5 volumes; and Larry Minear & Philippe Guillot, Soldiers to the Rescue: Humanitarian Lessons from Rwanda (Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1996).

20 U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Global Humanitarian Emergencies, 1997, document dated April 1997, p. 15.

21 See Shepard Forman & Rita Parad, Paying for Essentials: Resources for Humanitarian Assistance, draft presented at Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, 11-12 September 1997.

22 One of the main drawbacks of the CERF is the need to repay funds, which UN agencies have trouble persuading donors to undertake post facto. Indeed, in 1996 only USD 2 million was disbursed.

23 Monographs published by the Humanitarianism and War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute document, among other things, the host of coordination problems especially those related to the dynamics of humanitarian action at the interface with military operations under UN auspices. Case-studies published to date include Chechnya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Haiti, Georgia, Liberia, former Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Central America, the Gulf Crisis, and Sudan. These are available at the following electronic address: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Watson_Institute/H_W.

24 Antonio Donini, The Policies of Mercy: UN Coordination in Afghanistan, Mozambique and Rwanda, Occasional Paper #22 (Providence, RI: Watson Institute, 1996), p. 14.

25 Press release SG/2037, ORG/1239 of 16 July 1997. To be fair, analysts other than the UN's public relations staff also have been laudatory. See, for example, Jeffrey Laurenti, `A Critical Assessment of the Secretary-General's Reform Program', UN Association of the USA, document dated 12 August 1997.

26 Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization (1997), doc. A/52/1, para. 106.

27 See, for example, Michael Maren, The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity (New York: Free Press, 1997); Alex de Waal & Rakiya Omaar, Humanitarianism Unbound, Discussion Paper No. 5 (London: African Rights, 1994); David Sogge, ed., Compassion and Calculation: The Business of Private Foreign Aid (London: Pluto Press, 1996); and Peter J. Burnell, Charity, Politics and the Third World (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991). For a discussion of the recent literature and evolving principles and thoughts, see Christian Michelsen Institute, Humanitarian Assistance and Conflict (Bergen: Christian Michelsen Institute, 1997).

28 See Mark Duffield, `The Political Economy of Internal War: Asset Transfer and the Internationalisation of Public Welfare in the Horn of Africa', in Joanna Macrae & Anthony Zwi, eds, War and Hunger: Rethinking International Responses to Complex Emergencies (London: Zed Books, 1994); and Mark Duffield, `NGO Relief in War Zones: Towards an Analysis of the New Aid Paradigm', Third World Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 3, 1997, pp. 527-542.

29 Nigel Fisher (chair), `Recommendations on the Functions and Structure of the New Office of the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator', in published document dated 7 September 1997.

30 See Thomas G. Weiss & Amir Pasic, `Reinventing UNHCR: Enterprising Humanitarians in the Former Yugoslavia', Global Governance, vol. 3, no. 1, 1997, pp. 41-57.

31 Thomas G. Weiss, `Overcoming the Somalia: `Operation Rekindle Hope'?' Global Governance, vol. 1, no. 2, 1995, pp. 171-187; and `Military-Civilian Humanitarianism: “The Age of Innocence” Is Over', International Peacekeeping, vol. 2, no. 2, 1995, pp. 157-174.

32 James Ingram, `The Future Architecture for International Humanitarian Assistance', in Thomas G. Weiss & Larry Minear, eds, Humanitarianism Across Borders: Sustaining Civilians in Times of War (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1993), pp. 174-193. This option seems unfeasible for a number of reasons. First, there is the implausibility of altering the ICRC's Swiss character. Second, there is the ICRC's unwillingness to budge from its principle of consent, which by definition will be a handicap in enforcement operations. Finally, its ferocious need to maintain autonomy is hardly conducive to being the servant of governments.

33 Barbara Crossette, `UNICEF Says U.N. Reforms Could Harm the World's Children', New York Times, 3 June 1997, p. A11.

34 David Rieff, informal paper on `Fundraising Dilemmas'. For more elaborate discussions of this phenomenon, see Robert I. Rotberg & Thomas G. Weiss, eds, From Massacres to Genocide: The Media, Public Policy, and Humanitarian Crises (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1996); Larry Minear, Colin Scott, & Thomas G. Weiss, The News Media, Civil War, and Humanitarian Action (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1996); Edward Girardet, ed., Somalia, Rwanda, and Beyond: The Role of the International Media in Wars and Humanitarian Crises, Crosslines Special Report 1 (Dublin: Crosslines Communications, Ltd., 1995); Johanna Newman, Lights, Camera, War (New York: St. Martin's, 1996); and Nik Gowing, Real-Time Television Coverage of Armed Conflicts and Diplomatic Crises (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Shorenstein Center, 1994).

35 Laurenti, `A Critical Assessment', p. 8.

36 The State of the World's Refugees 1993: The Challenge of Protection (New York: Penguin Books, 1993); and Gil Loescher, Beyond Charity: International Cooperation and the Global Refugee Crisis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). This lament continues as a theme in The State of the World's Refugees 1995: In Search of Solutions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995); and The State of the World's Refugees 1997-98: A Humanitarian Agenda (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

37 William Shawcross, `UNHCR: Criticisms and Challenges', draft dated 4 July 1997.

38 Thomas G. Weiss, ed., Beyond UN Subcontracting: Task-sharing with Regional Security Arrangements and Service-Providing NGOs (London: Macmillan, 1998).

39 Larry Minear, U. B. P. Chelliah, Jeff Crisp, John Mackinlay, & Thomas G. Weiss, United Nations Coordination of the International Humanitarian Response to the Gulf Crisis, 1990-1992, Occasional Paper #13 (Providence, RI: Watson Institute, 1992), p. 3.