IRRC No. 866

Governing catastrophes: security, health and humanitarian assistance

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Recent catastrophes, and predictions of an increasing potential for more, have stimulated thinking about the best policy responses to these threats. This article explores how security concepts influence catastrophe governance. It considers how globalization affects thinking about catastrophes, describes ways in which catastrophes have been conceptualized as governance challenges and explains how health and humanitarian assistance experienced "securitization" in the post-Cold War period.

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Governing catastrophes: security, health and humanitarian assistance author: David P. Fidler

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Lessons learned? Disasters, rapid change and globalization author: Wolf R. Dombrowsky

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Prompt and utter destruction: the Nagasaki disaster and the initial medical relief author: Nobuko Margaret Kosuge

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Humanity amid conflict, terror and catastrophe: hypothetical but possible scenarios author: Anthea Sanyasi

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Who will assist the victims of use of nuclear, radiological, biological or chemical weapons – and how? author: Dominique Loye, Robin Coupland

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Domestic regulation of international humanitarian relief in disasters and armed conflict: a comparative analysis author: David Fisher

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Lessons for human rights and humanitarian law in the war on terror: comparing Hamdan and the Israeli Targeted Killings case author: Marko Milanovic

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The judicial arm of the occupation: the Israeli military courts in the occupied territories author: Sharon Weill

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Managing the dead in catastrophes: guiding principles and practical recommendations for first responders author: Dr Morris Tidball-Binz

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A US government response to the International Committee of the Red Cross study Customary International Humanitarian Law author: John B. Bellinger III, William J. Haynes

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Customary International Humanitarian Law: a response to US comments author: Jean-Marie Henckaerts

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