Hierarchies and the drawing of boundaries in humanitarian action

Abstract

What is - and what is not - humanitarian action? This chapter puts the spotlight on some historically rooted present-day boundaries of humanitarian assistance that are usually treated as "natural" and, as a result, go unquestioned. It is argued here that problematising these boundaries makes it possible to discern where they stem from and the important consequences that they have on which actors are considered "humanitarian" and as central agents in the field - and thus who is not. In other words, these boundaries create - and are the result of - hierarchies. The boundaries at the heart of this chapter are those that are drawn, in various ways, between the "international" and the "national", whereby the "international" is considered pertinent to humanitarianism, while the "national" is not. However, as we shall see, there is nothing natural about these contemporary boundaries between the "international" and the "national". Moreover, they have shifted over time in ways that both reflect power relations and impinge on them.