2012-34 - Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed, by Claire Magone, Michael Neuman, and Fabrice Weissman

34 - Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed, by Claire Magone, Michael Neuman, and Fabrice Weissman, 258 pages, Columbia University Press, 2011
WHY I PICKED IT: It's an MSF book
ELAPSED TIME: 3 weeks
RATING: Very Good!

Gaining access to distressed populations to provide Medical Relief requires ongoing negotiations and tradeoffs with conflicting parties and interests.  Each of the first 12 chapters addresses the tradeoffs required in different contexts.  From Myanmar (who didn't want anybody to talk about what was going on), to India (where the political impact of bringing in "western food" when they have their own plan to feed their population was considered neo-colonialist, despite chronic malnourishment in some children).  From Afghanistan (where you have to negotiate access with individual warlords), to Somalia (where you have to negotiate the same type of access AND have armed guards from those warlords protect you in their areas).

The authors address the militarization of humanitarian aid, and the impact on relief efforts, and the challenge of témoignage (to bear witness):
a) If you say something that a local warlord doesn't like, your words can be used to exclude you from access to the people who need your help (or worse, put people who helped you in harms way).
b) If you raise awareness of "crimes against humanity," your words can be used to rationalize a "just war."
c) If you say nothing, you risk being in a position of complicity... perhaps ensuring that people have a full belly when their government exterminates them, or more likely enabling a government's lack of care for its own people with no international political pressure to change.

This book is required reading for anybody wanting to do international relief work... and a very good read for everybody else.