
By David Kennedy
In this provocative and well timed booklet, David Kennedy explores what can move awry once we positioned our humanitarian yearnings into motion on a world scale--and what we will be able to do in response.
Rooted in Kennedy's personal event in different humanitarian efforts, the booklet examines campaigns for human rights, refugee safeguard, fiscal improvement, and for humanitarian limits to the behavior of warfare. It takes us from the jails of Uruguay to the corridors of the United international locations, from the founding of a non-governmental association devoted to the liberation of East Timor to paintings aboard an plane provider within the Persian Gulf.
Kennedy stocks the satisfactions of overseas humanitarian engagement--but additionally the disappointments of a religion betrayed. With humanitarianism's new strength comes wisdom that even the main well-intentioned tasks can create as many difficulties as they resolve. Kennedy develops a record of the unexpected effects, blind spots, and biases of humanitarian work--from focusing an excessive amount of on principles and too little on effects to the ambiguities of waging conflict within the identify of human rights. He explores the combo of altruism, self-doubt, self-congratulation, and easy disorientation that accompany efforts to convey humanitarian commitments to overseas settings.
Writing for all those that want that "globalization" will be extra humane, Kennedy urges us to imagine and paintings extra pragmatically.
A paintings of surprising verve, honesty, and perception, this insider's account urges us to embody the liberty and the accountability that include a deeper information of the darkish facets of humanitarian governance.
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