The Pulse of Humanitarian Assistance

by Kevin M. Cahill (Editor)

Overview

Understanding the complex nature of international humanitarian action—particularly following natural disasters or armed conflicts—has been the mission of this unique series. This book explores the cutting-edge concerns that will affect how assistance is offered in the future.

Featuring twelve original essays by leading practitioners, policymakers, and scholars, the book is a state of the field report on problems, threats, and opportunities facing relief efforts in today’s world.

With contributions from such authorities as Bernard Kouchner, founder of Doctors Without Borders, Charles McCormick, CEO of Save the Children, and physicians, military leaders, field workers, and others, the essays
confront the most critical issues facing the delivery of effective relief.

The issues include military and civilian cooperation in large-scale disasters, with special attention to the growth of private armies. How traditional nongovernmental organizations and faith-based agencies adapt to new
challenges is also explored. Ways to strengthen security for humanitarian workers, refugees, and internally displaced persons and those in transition after wars are also considered.

Bringing together diplomatic, military, medical, legal, political, religious, and ethical perspectives from experiences in Darfur, West Africa, Iraq, Pakistan, and other areas, the essays offer an authoritative inventory of where humanitarian relief has been, and how it must change to save lives and communities in peril.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823260737
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	09/16/2013
Series:	International Humanitarian Affairs
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Kevin M. Cahill, M.D., (1936-2022) was University Professor and Director at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University and the President of the Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation in New York City. He was also a Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine and Molecular Parasitology at New York University and Director of the Tropical Disease Center at Lenox Hill Hospital. He served as the Chief Advisor on Humanitarian and Public Health Issues for three Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly and for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. His career in tropical medicine and humanitarian operations began in Calcutta in 1959; he carried out medical, relief, and epidemiological research in 70 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He wrote or edited 33 books, translated into many languages, and more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals on subjects ranging from public health and tropical diseases to humanitarian assistance, foreign affairs, Irish literature, and history. He held numerous Honorary Doctorates from universities around the world.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     ix
Acronyms     xi
Introduction   Kevin M. Cahill, M.D.     1
Moving Targets
Patients Without Borders   Bernard Kouchner, M.D.     13
Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: A Decade of Promises   Sheri Fink, M.D.     22
No Justice Without Power: The Case for Humanitarian Intervention   Alexander Van Tulleken, M.D.     41
Military-Civilian Cooperation
The Humanitarian Community and the Private Sector   Tim Cross     79
Looking Beyond the "Latest and Greatest"   Christopher Holshek     103
Not If...But When and How?   Larry Hollingworth     132
The 2005 Pakistan Earthquake   Nadeem Ahmed   Andrew MacLeod     158
Post-Conflict Issues
Protecting Societies in Transition   Geoff Loane   Lois Austin   Pat Gibbons     179
Internal Displacement in West Africa: Challenges and Constraints   Claudia McGoldrick     202
The NGO Perspective
Coordination and Collaboration: An NGO View   Charles F. MacCormack     243
Being With Them   Lluis Magrina, S.J.     263
Transformation from Relief to a Justice and Solidarity Focus   Joan Neal     279
Notes     293
Contributors     309
About the Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation and the Institute for International Humanitarian Affairs     313

Editorial Reviews

We are living in agonizingly complicated times, when a volunteer doctor from Kansas may find herself repairing the broken bodies of an ethnic conflict on a continent far away. She may one day look up to see a child whose bones she mended a year ago now standing before her, machete in hand,
threatening murder. Whether they work for organizations like the Red Cross,
for United Nations agencies or for their governments, the world-over humanitarians now find themselves in great confusion. This is an enormous,
soul-searching moment in history, brilliantly clarified and focused by The
Pulse of Humanitarian Assistance.

——Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize winning writer, author of Betrayl of Trust, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations

In taking the pulse of humanitarian assistance, Dr. Cahill and his impressive array of authors detect a steady heartbeat behind the battered and bruised exterior of current relief operations.
Shrinking humanitarian space, the frustrations of inadequate protection, the rarity of social justice, the challenges of building local capacity and the need to move from first aid to recovery all amount to a call for action. This book addresses these issues with clinical clarity, and responds with a clear moral voice.
CPR in print.

——Dirk Salomons, Columbia University

This timely book discusses the many challenges facing humanitarians in their increasinglinly complex work. Kevin Cahill and his expert contributors have correctly identified what constitutes the pulse of humanitarian assistance, and many of the dilemmas it faces, in a thoughtful and constructive way.——Tom Arnold, CEO, Concern Worldwide

From the Publisher

We are living in agonizingly complicated times, when a volunteer doctor from Kansas may find herself repairing the broken bodies of an ethnic conflict on a continent far away. She may one day look up to see a child whose bones she mended a year ago now standing before her, machete in hand,
threatening murder. Whether they work for organizations like the Red Cross,
for United Nations agencies or for their governments, the world-over humanitarians now find themselves in great confusion. This is an enormous,
soul-searching moment in history, brilliantly clarified and focused by The
Pulse of Humanitarian Assistance.

Pulitzer Prize winning writer, author of Betrayl of Trust, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations - Laurie Garrett

In taking the pulse of humanitarian assistance, Dr. Cahill and his impressive array of authors detect a steady heartbeat behind the battered and bruised exterior of current relief operations.
Shrinking humanitarian space, the frustrations of inadequate protection, the rarity of social justice, the challenges of building local capacity and the need to move from first aid to recovery all amount to a call for action. This book addresses these issues with clinical clarity, and responds with a clear moral voice.
CPR in print.

Columbia University - Dirk Salomons

This timely book discusses the many challenges facing humanitarians in their increasinglinly complex work. Kevin Cahill and his expert contributors have correctly identified what constitutes the pulse of humanitarian assistance, and many of the dilemmas it faces, in a thoughtful and constructive way.

CEO, Concern Worldwide - Tom Arnold