Cold War humanitarians: NGOs as national political actors in the Global South

Oxfam and MSF clashed over the meaning of ethical humanitarian action and the relevance of human rights to their work during the Cold War. To understand why, this book compares how the NGOs’ identities were forged within specific political cultures in Britain and France. While MSF gave voice to the anti-totalitarian convictions of disillusioned ex-communists, Oxfam’s members had a less ideologically charged background and gravitated towards criticism of Western realpolitik, leading the NGO ...