Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR): HA/DR Journals & Publications

In this volume, John Sherwood examines the response of the U.S. Navy and its partners to three of the most destructive disasters in recent history: the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Japan's triple disaster in 2011. Based on original sources and numerous interviews, Sherwood not only explores a topic rarely examined by historians but crafts a vivid and compelling narrative

Attacks on humanitarian aid operations are both a symptom and a weapon of modern warfare, and as armed groups increasingly target aid workers for violence, relief operations are curtailed in places where civilians are most in need. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the challenges to humanitarian action in warzones, the risk management and negotiation strategies that hold the most promise for aid organizations, and an ethical framework from which to tackle the problem.

In this blow-by-blow account, Walsh and Johnson relate what it was like to work on the frontlines of an epidemic. In 2014, two humanitarians found themselves responding to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. Completely overwhelmed and wrapped in stifling protective suits they faced incredible odds to keep a hospital open, as the line of sick and dying patients grew every day.

Humanitarians are required to be impartial, independent, professionally competent and focused only on preventing and alleviating human suffering. Getting first to a conflict or natural catastrophe is only the beginning, as aid workers are usually and immediately presented with practical and moral questions about what to do next. This book has been written to help humanitarians assess and respond to these and other ethical dilemmas.

The overflow of information generated during disasters can be as paralyzing to humanitarian response as the lack of information. Making sense of this data deluge during disasters is proving a challenge for traditional humanitarian organizations. This book charts the sudden and spectacular rise of Digital Humanitarians by sharing their remarkable, real-life stories, highlighting how their humanity coupled with innovative solutions to Big Data is changing humanitarian response forever.

Humanitarian crises are usually perceived as a complete break from normality, spurring special emergency policies and interventions. In reality, there are many continuities and discontinuities between crisis and normality. This book examines this topic from a sociological perspective and provides a qualitative inquiry into the social and political dynamics of local institutional response, international policy and aid interventions in crises caused by conflict or natural disaster.

Empire of Humanity explores humanitarianism’s remarkable growth from its humble origins in the early nineteenth century to its current prominence in global life. Based on extensive archival work, close encounters with many of today’s leading international agencies, and interviews with dozens of aid workers in the field and at headquarters, Empire of Humanity provides a history that is both global and intimate.