Is Humanitarianism Being Politicised? A Reply to David Rieff

Humanitarianism is always politicized somehow. It is a political project in a political world. Its mission is a political one - to restrain and ameliorate the use of organised violence in human relations and to engage with power in order to do so. Powers that are either sympathetic or unsympathetic to humanitarian action in war always have an interest in shaping it their way.

The "politicization of humanitarianism" is not an outrage in itself. Ethics and politics are not opposites. There can be good politics, bad politics and some politics that are better than others. So for humanitarianism to be a politica project is not a contradiction or necessarily a problem. The real questions for the debate are the ones that follow from this recognition. These are the ones raised in David Rieff's book:

- Who is politicising humanitarianism today, how and to what end?
- Does the predominant politicization of the day matter to victims?
- If so, what can humanitarians do about it?