ANTH 243
Dilemmas of Humanitarian Intervention Fall 2009
Division II Writing Skills
This is not the current course catalog

This course will explore the promises, realities, and implications of humanitarian interventions, including relief operations, national reconstruction projects, and peacekeeping missions. People in the affluent nations of Western Europe and North America contribute billions of dollars each year in response to solicitations promising to relieve the suffering of victims of natural disaster, political strife, ethnic cleansing, and refugee crises. Western governments send thousands of troops to war-torn nations in order to “keep the peace.” However, all too often these efforts go awry and contribute in direct and indirect ways to the natural, economic, and political destruction already visited upon these countries. This course will consider the reasons and ways in which often well-intentioned actions to relieve the suffering of others go wrong, and ways in which current efforts might be improved. The course will begin with a consideration of the philosophical, ethical, and social underpinnings of humanitarianism, and then examine several classic anthropological studies, including Marcel Mauss’s Gift,ch provide the ground for considering humanitarianism in a more socially nuanced manner. The majority of the course will focus on specific case studies or relief, reconstruction, and peacekeeping operations, including famine relief in sub-Saharan Africa, peacekeeping in the Balkans, and reconstruction programs in Afghanistan. In addition, we will look in depth at the work of one or more aid organizations.