Help or hindrance? The role of humanitarian military interventions in human security NGO operations

Abstract

Existing research shows that the combined presence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and military interventions can serve as ‘force multipliers’, leading to improvements in some human security outcomes. In this paper, we examine a couple possible mechanisms that can help to explain why we see these improvements. More specifically, we ask whether this is a result of military intervention aiding in the coordination among NGOs or whether humanitarian interventions, that likely share similar goals with human rights NGOs, provide the security necessary for them to carry out their missions. Using data on military interventions and human rights NGOs, we find that NGOs present in states with humanitarian interventions have more network ties than organizations not in states with interventions. Using the same NGO data and data on terror attacks targeting NGOs, we find less support for the security enhancing effects of humanitarian interventions.

Defence organizations in emergency networks: the early response to COVID-19 in Europe

“…Some of the activities undertaken by DOs were related to safety and security, such as establishing checkpoints or providing site security. Such activities are in line with those commonly involved in humanitarian responses (Harris and Dombrowski, 2002;Bell et al, 2019). A major part of the activities was focused on logistics and transportation, including the movement of goods and people, as well as warehousing and materials handling.…”

“…This context differs from the involvement of DOs in classic humanitarian responses to events such as natural disasters or acts of war, which are the focus of the extant literature (Bell et al , 2019; Hall and Deinla, 2021). However, with COVID-19, the crisis affected the entire world (albeit to different degrees at different times) and thus impacted all supply chains and any potential external assistance simultaneously.…”

Shifts in the humanitarian space? Examining NGO–military engagements during the 2017 crisis in Marawi, Philippines

“…On the NGO side, the Marawi response allowed them to level up, later forming Task Force Bangon Marawi Civil Society Platform to link community-based rehabilitation initiatives funded by external donors to those the national government plans to do. Unlike Bell et al's (2019) argument in the case of Afghanistan, the military integration platforms during the Marawi response had no bearing at all on the local NGOs' ability to network with each other. This may demonstrate that local NGOs have improved their capacity, allowing them to be nimble and innovative in dealing with crisis-level challenges, including dealing with restrictions imposed by the military authority.…”

Michael Walzer’s Humanitarian Intervention Theory Applied to Multisided Conflicts: A Discussion of Intervention and Self-Determination in the Syrian Civil War

“…In fact, recent conflicts-some of them still ongoing-have different circumstances: In Syria, Yemen, or Libya we find that the conflicts develop among several factions divided by political, religious, or ethnic elements, some of them fighting for the control of the territory and others committing crimes against the civilian population in order to gain power. An extant branch of literature has studied the legitimacy of humanitarian intervention aimed at halting the massacres, also analyzing how some of these interventions eventually became proxy wars (Weiss 2007;Menon 2016;Carati 2017;Ferro and Ruys 2018;Bell et al 2019;Johannsen 2020).…”