Empire of Humanity

Barnett (international affairs & political science, George Washington Univ.; Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda) divides his study of humanitarianism into three stages across 200 years: pre-World War II, World War II through the Cold War, and post-Cold War. First, abolitionist groups and missionaries dominated; after World War II came decolonization and developmental economics; and the third stage reveals the professionalization of agencies and their growing role as a part of global governance. Barnett identifies two types of humanitarian agencies: emergency (immediate relief of suffering) and alchemical (seeking to cure the underlying cause of suffering). He points to Bosnia and Rwanda to highlight the moral dilemma agencies face: they need the cooperation of local governments, even when those governments have caused the emergency or when aid may be diverted to the perpetrators. Barnett is critical of relief agencies, the UN in particular, for failure to address this dilemma appropriately. This is the first work to make such a strong connection between agency history and today's circumstances.