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In the Shadow of Just Wars

Fabrice Weissman

Fabrice

Weissman

A political scientist by training, Fabrice Weissman joined Médecins sans Frontières in 1995. First as a logistician, then as project coordinator and head of mission, he has worked in many countries in conflict (Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, etc.) and more recently in Malawi in response to natural disasters. He is the author of several articles and collective works on humanitarian action, including "In the Shadow of Just Wars. Violence, Politics and Humanitarian Action" (ed., London, Hurst & Co., 2004), "Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed. The MSF Experience" (ed., Oxford University Press, 2011) and "Saving Lives and Staying Alive. Humanitarian Security in the Age of Risk Management" (ed., London, Hurst & Co, 2016). He is also one of the main hosts of the podcast La zone critique.

By the same author

2003

During the planning stages of military intervention in Iraq, humanitarian organizations were offered U.S. government funds to join the Coalition and operate uneder the umbrella of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Nongovernmental organizations had previuously been asked to join "just wars" in Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, wars initiated by Western powers against oppressive regimes or armed groups. Many aid organizations cooperated eagerly.

Few Afghans regret the eclipse of the Taliban, or Sierra Leoneans the stabilization of their country after British military intervention in 2000. However, the incidental victimes of theses triumphs, those on the "wrong side" , are soon forgotten. Humanitarian organization are duty-bound to save these people, altough they must remain independent of the warring parties and not support the "struggle against evil" or any other political agenda.

Then there are places where the pretense of provinding assistance allows donor governments to disguise their support for local political powers. Millions in North Korea, Angola, and Sudan haver starved to death beacuse of the diversion of huge quantities of food aid. There are also those whose sacrifice is politically irrelevant in the wider picture of international relations- the victims of brutal wars in Algeria, Chechnya, and Liberia, for instance, where what little international aid is available is subsumed by the adversaries' desire to wage total war, to exterminate entire populations.

In this book, international experts and members of Médecins Sans Frontières analyze the way these issues have crystallized over the five years spanning the ned of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. They make the case for a renewed commitment to an old ideal: a humanitarianism that defies a politics of expendable lives.

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