BOOK: Davide RODOGNO, Night on Earth A History of International Humanitarianism in the Near East, 1918–1930 (Cambridge: CUP, 2021), ISBN 9781108689892

 

(image source: CUP)

Book presentation:

Night on Earth is a broad-ranging account of international humanitarian programs in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Near East from 1918 to 1930. Davide Rodogno shows that international 'relief' and 'development' were intertwined long before the birth of the United Nations with humanitarians operating in a region devastated by war and famine and in which state sovereignty was deficient. Influenced by colonial motivations and ideologies these humanitarians attempted to reshape entire communities and nations through reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes. The book draws on the activities of a wide range of secular and religious organisations and philanthropic foundations in the US and Europe including the American Relief Administration, the American Red Cross, the Quakers, Save the Children, the Near East Relief, the American Women's Hospitals, the League of Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

(source: CUP) 

ADVANCE ARTICLE: Helen M. KINSELLA & Giovanni MANTILLA, "Contestation before Compliance: History, Politics, and Power in International Humanitarian Law" (International Studies Quarterly) (OPEN ACCESS)

(image source: OUP)

Article abstract:

Despite the common reference to international humanitarian law (IHL) in the discourse and practice of international politics, international relations (IR) scholarship has yet to consistently engage in an analysis of IHL that extends beyond the relatively narrow specifications of its regulative and strategic effects. In this theory note, we argue that this prevailing focus leaves the discipline with an impoverished understanding of IHL and its operation in international politics. We propose that the study of IHL should be expanded through a deeper engagement with the law's historical development, the politics informing its codification and interpretation, and its multiple potential effects beyond compliance. This accomplishes three things. First, it corrects for IR's predominantly ahistorical approach to evaluating both IHL and compliance, revealing the complicated, contested, and productive construction of some of IHL's core legal concepts and rules. Second, our approach illuminates how IR's privileging of civilian targeting requires analytical connection to other rules such as proportionality and military necessity, none of which can be individually assessed and each of which remain open to debate. Third, we provide new resources for analyzing and understanding IHL and its contribution to “world making and world ordering.”

(source: OUP)

ADVANCE ARTICLE: Manuel Galvis MARTINEZ, 'The Historical Evolution of Allegiance During Occupation' (American Journal of Legal History)

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Abstract:

The article traces the historical evolution of an understudied area of International Humanitarian Law (IHL): the rules on allegiance during occupation. By mapping state practice and scholarly opinions, the article shows the abandonment of the automatic transfer of the population’s allegiance to the occupant in favour of other theories. Nonetheless, the discussions surrounding this topic show a general struggle to label the relation between inhabitants and occupiers, and a general rejection of any theory that directly or indirectly presumes sovereignty of the occupier over the inhabitants. The article presents an element that is rarely included in debates on allegiance and occupation, i.e. the efforts of states to reinforce their sovereignty over occupied population through criminal prosecution of those who collaborated with the occupant. Finally, contemporary practice aimed at bypassing the regulations is presented as incongruent with the rules regarding occupation in the Geneva Conventions. Despite the landmarks achieved in regulating the matter, the article shows that many aspects remain under discussion and formation. Furthermore, many current rules, practices and discussions only serve the interests of states and are oblivious of the hardships faced by individuals under occupation.

Read more with Oxford Journals.

ARTICLE: Boyd VAN DIJK, "“The Great Humanitarian”: The Soviet Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Geneva Conventions of 1949"' (Law and History Review XXXVII (2019), Issue 1)

(image source: Cambridge Core)

Boyd van Dijk (Amsterdam) published an article on the Soviet Union and the 1949 Geneva Conventions in the latest issue of the Law and History Review (American Society for Legal History). Unfortunately, the journal does not publish abstracts. Those willing to consult the article can click here.

ARTICLE: Boyd VAN DIJK, "Human Rights in War: On the Entangled Foundations of the 1949 Geneva Conventions", AJIL XCII (2018), Nr. 4, 553-582

(image source: ASIL)

Article abstract:

The relationship between human rights and humanitarian law is one of the most contentious topics in the history of international law. Most scholars studying their foundations argue that these two fields of law developed separately until the 1960s. This article, by contrast, reveals a much earlier cross-fertilization between these disciplines. It shows how “human rights thinking” played a critical generative role in transforming humanitarian law, thereby creating important legacies for today's understandings of international law in armed conflict.

Access the article on Cambridge Core.

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Global Humanitarianism Research Academy (Leibniz Institute Mainz/ICRC/Exeter)

(image source: ICRC)




The Leibniz Institute for European History (Mainz), the International Committee of the Red Cross and the University of Exeter announce the launch of the "Global Humanitarianism Research Academy", starting July 2015. The initiative is designed to offer training to young researchers in the field of human rights, international law or international relations.

Mission statement:

This international Research Academy will offer research training to a group of advanced international PhD candidates and early postdoctoral scholars selected by the steering committee. It will combine academic sessions at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz and the Imperial and Global History Centre at the University of Exeter with archival sessions at the Archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. The Research Academy is open to early career researchers who are working in the related fields of humanitarianism,humanitarian law, peace and conflict studies as well as human rights covering the period from the 18^th to the 20^th centuries. It supports scholarship on the ideas and practices of humanitarianism in the context of international, imperial and global history thus advancing our understanding of global governance in humanitarian crises of the present.

 An official call will follow later on http://hhr.hypotheses.org/.