Has rational humanitarianism replaced relational humanitarianism?

17/04/2014

This article responds to criticism of the Groupe URD Haiti Observatory report on humanitarian organisations and security in Metropolitan Port-au-Prince. It reiterates the main conclusions of the report and underlines the importance of situating the security policies of humanitarian organisations within a specific historical and cultural context; that of increased rationalisation of the humanitarian domain since the Cold War. The article concludes that there is a danger of limiting the question of humanitarian insecurity to technocratic issues of calculation and control.