LibGuides: Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR): Strategic Competition & HA/DR

Strategic Competition and HA/DR

Brown University | Humanitarian Access, Great Power Conflict, and Large-Scale Combat Operations
To advance understanding of the humanitarian dimensions of large-scale combat operations between great powers, or between other peer or near-peer states, this report analyzes humanitarian access challenges likely to arise in such contexts.
Brown University | U.S. Policy Roadmap for Meeting the Humanitarian Assistance / Disaster Relief (HA/DR) Challenge During Great Power Competition
This reports aims to explore the policy measures that could steer strategic competition's influence in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief sphere to a positive outcome by proposing a policy roadmap that meets the emerging HA/DR
challenge to the U.S.
CFE-DM | HA/DR Implications in the Era of Great Power Competition
A whole volume of CFE-DM's Liaison Journal (Volume 13, Issue 1, 2021) is dedicated to exploring strategic competitions influence within the HA/DR space.
CSIS | U.S. Foreign Assistance in the Age of Strategic Competition
This reports explores how the delivery of U.S. foreign assistance will need to adapt to new realities in an evolving world, one that sees increasing competition with China and Russia.
Foreign Affairs | The Weaponization of Humanitarian Aid
In recent years, Russia and China have shown themselves more willing to use their diplomatic muscle and veto power at the Security Council to enable governments to deprive their own people of humanitarian aid. By politicizing and weaponizing humanitarian aid, China and Russia are expanding their influence at the expense of international stability, humanitarian norms, and human rights.
Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs | Evacuation Operations, Great-Power Competition, and External Operations Terror Threats in Post-Drawdown Afghanistan: Mapping Out the Path Ahead
Within months of the US withdrawal & Taliban takeover, Afghanistan emerged as a global epicenter of great-power competition (GPC). It is vital to understand this new operating environment especially humanitarian aid and evacuations.
Just Security | Anticipating the Human Costs of Great Power Conflict
Just Security article highlighting CIVIC-NWC-Stanford interdisciplinary project focused on understanding and identifying the wide range of potential risks posed to civilians and humanitarian responders in great power conflict scenarios.
National Defense University Press | Doing Well by Doing Good? Strategic Competition and United Nations Peacekeeping
This study evaluates the benefits that U.S. competitors have gained through their engagement in UN peacekeeping and will assesses the extent to which these benefits necessarily challenge U.S. interests.
National Defense University Press | Foreign Aid in an Era of Great Power Competition
This article explores the evolution of the rising political and strategic competition in the international development space between the United States, a rising China and a rapidly re-arming, revanchist Russia.
Real Clear Defense | DoD Humanitarian Assistance: A Powerful Tool for DoD in Great Power Competition
Russia & China continue to expand their influence at the expense of the United States across the globe. Yet the US seems to struggle at deterring the malign influence of our adversaries. The tools to counter this may be limited, but they do exist, such as Humanitarian Assistance (HA).
The Atlantic Council | Great-power competition threatens climate disaster response
The Biden administration’s shifting focus to strategic competition could draw resources and attention away from improving domestic disaster response capabilities.

RUS HA/DR

Aid Data | Russia’s foreign aid re-emerges
Little is known about Russia’s foreign aid. This paper examines the evidence to pinpoint characteristics of Russia's aid spending that distinguish its aid from that of other emerging donors.
Aid Data | Who is Leading Russia's Overseas Aid Program?
This paper explores there the tug-of-war between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over who would lead the provision of Russia's vision and infrastructure for Russia’s overseas aid programme.
Al Araby | In its battle for influence, Russia's soft power strategy seeks to reshape Syria's future
Moscow's role in Syria is often referenced through its military intervention, but the Kremlin is also using soft power tactics to shape a future elite and establish lasting influence that includes the use of humanitarian aid for political means.
Carnegie Moscow | How Russia's hollow Humanitarianism hurts is Vaccine Diplomacy in Africa
If Russia wants to be influential on the continent, African political and economic leaders should demand more of Moscow, not simply settle for the symbolic humanitarian engagements or agreements at which the Russian leadership excels.
Charities Aid Foundation | Russia Giving Index 2019: An overview of charitable giving in Russia
This report explores data on trends in Russia's charity sector and donations for charitable purposes.
CSIS | Russia’s Adaptation Game: Deciphering the Kremlin’s “Humanitarian Policy”
This brief analyzes the Kremlin’s new 'humanitarian policy' of September 2022, considers the complex geopolitical context contributing to the release of the document, as well as the document justifying Russia’s ability to defend the idea of the “Russian World” in the post-Soviet bloc.
CSIS | Stabilization Assistance amid Geopolitical Competition: A Case Study of Eastern Syria
For the United States, civilian stabilization assistance in fragile areas like North East Syria represents a potentially significant tool in the context of geopolitical competition because supporting locally legitimate political actors helps them stand up against external meddling.
CSIS | Using Foreign Aid to Respond to Russia’s Invasion
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscores that the US's development strategy cannot be one-size-fits-all, especially when dealing with strategic competitors. The U.S. approach to Russian aggression in Ukraine should be reflectively targeted and recognize that Russia does not provide a compelling economic development vision.
European Parliamentary Research Service | Russia’s humanitarian aid policy
Since the mid-2000s, Russia has re-emerged as a donor of humanitarian aid. However, its contributions remain modest compared to those of more established donors, and some Russian aid appears to serve geopolitical rather than humanitarian objectives
International Crisis Group | Getting Aid to Separatist Held Ukraine (2019)
The front lines in eastern Ukraine are slowly freezing in place, as is civilian deprivation in the conflict zone. An embargo, bureaucracy and distrust conspire to keep humanitarian aid out. Russia and Ukraine should find politically neutral ways to unblock the flow of assistance.
ISW | Putin's "Peacekeepers" will support Russian wars
This reports explores how the Russian President likely seeks to create an impression linking Russian "peacekeepers" in Nagorno Karabakh to "humanitarian assistance".
Law Library of Congress | Russian Federation: Regulation of Foreign Aid
This article from 2011 provides an overview of Russia's foreign aid spending, apparatus, and activities amongst other areas.
LSE Ideas | From Russia With Love? Serbia’s Lukewarm Reception of Russian Aid and Its Geopolitical Implications
This article explores how Russia has supplied aid to Serbia to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, something that has not received the same attention from the Serbian leadership and public the way China's aid has.
Oxfam | Russia as a Humanitarian Aid Donor
This paper addresses the role of Russia as a humanitarian aid donor in the context of the increasing participation in international aid of so called ‘new’, ‘emerging’ (or ‘re-emerging’), or ‘non traditional’ donors.
South African Institute of International Affairs | The Russian approach to Africa
Russia is an active player in the UN system in Africa. This special report chapter explores more how Russia has engaged with the UN in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The Atlantic Council | Mapping Russia’s soft power efforts in Syria through humanitarian aid
Moscow has used the incentive of aid to buy political loyalty and better promote its image in the country. By mapping where Russia has delivered aid over an 18-month period (between 2018 and 2020), a picture of Russia’s soft power tactics in Syria can be formed.
The Atlantic Council | Russian aid in Syria: An underestimated instrument of soft power
This article explores the twenty-five Russian entities that have reported delivering aid in Syria since Russia intervened in the Syrian conflict in late 2015 that form a seemingly innocuous shadow aid system in the country.
The Guardian | The Rebirth of Russian Foreign Aid
Russia spent £470m on foreign aid last year, the lowest of all the G8 nations. But its status as a 're-emerging donor' reveals its desire to maintain influence and rebuild its public image.
The Washington Institute | Exploring Russia's Humanitarian Intervention in Syria
In recent years, Russia has undertaken a quieter intervention in the Syrian conflict through ramping up its humanitarian efforts and potentially shaping the future of humanitarian aid to the country.
The Washington Institute | Exploring Russia's Views on Humanitarian Aid in Syria
This article provides an updated view of Russia's approach to its aid provision in Syria, describing four specific ways it does this.
The Washington Institute | The Sinister Reason Russia Wants Humanitarian Corridors in Ukraine
Putin’s deep experience with manipulating ceasefires and humanitarian agreements in Syria gives ample reason to believe he will do the same in Ukraine.

Featured Resources on PRC & RUS HA/DR

Brown University | China and the Future of HA/DR Operations in Great Power Competition
This paper seeks to define the likely PRC approach to future HA/DR operations and their implications using an extensive literature and interviews with 14 subject matter experts.
CSIS | China’s Humanitarian Aid: Cooperation amidst Competition
This report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) explores China's deployment of humanitarian aid during the COVID-19 pandemic While this assistance may not fit the principled, non-politicized definition of humanitarian aid used by many donors, it reflects how China thinks about short-term humanitarian action in the context of natural disasters and pandemics.
Marine Corps University Press | Russian Foreign Humanitarian Assistance: Identifying Trends Using 15 Years of Open-Source Data
This article in the Expeditions Journal explores trends in Russian foreign humanitarian assistance (FHA) during the past 15 years by using open-source data from 40 Russian entities that have reported delivering aid 5,014 times to Georgia, Ukraine, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Atlantic Council | Five years of Russian aid in Syria proves Moscow is an unreliable partner
This article from the MENA Source blog explores the development of Russia's humanitarian ecosytem in Syria and how it has grown to become a key part of Russia’s ‘softer’ engagement in Syria.

PRC HA/DR

Asian Journal of Comparative Politics | China’s evolving humanitarian diplomacy: Evidence from China’s disaster-related aid to Nepal
Engaging in disaster relief in developing countries with critical geoeconomic and geopolitical interests, like Nepal, has become an increasingly regular component of China’s evolving humanitarian diplomacy over the past decade.
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics | Humanitarian diplomacy as an instrument for China’s image-building
This article aims to contribute to the scholarship by examining China’s humanitarian activities in Southeast Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of image-building. Specifically, it answers the questions of how China uses humanitarian action to improve its international image and how effective such efforts have been.
Australian National University | The new Chinese aid agency after its first two years
In April 2018, China established its stand-alone aid agency – the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA). Two year's later, this article explores at what has changed and what remains the same for CIDCA, and what the implications are for external stakeholders.
Brookings Institute | China’s Aid to Africa: Monster or Messiah?
Aid is an important policy instrument for China among its various engagements with Africa. But aid to Africa has raised many questions, such as its composition, its goal and nature, which this article explores.
Brookings Institute | One year on, the role of the China International Development Cooperation Administration remains cloudy
On April 18, 2018 China formally established its first independent foreign aid agency: the China International Development Cooperation Administration (CIDCA). However, one year into its creation, has CIDCA begun to make a difference? This article examines its mandate and setup and aid practices.
Brown University | Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century
Is foreign aid an effective instrument of soft power? Does it generate affinity for donor countries and the values they espouse? This article answers these questions in the context of Chinese aid to Africa and the competing aid regime of the United States.
Carnegie | The Ins and Outs of China’s International Development Agency
This article explores how the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) has aimed to elevate the political importance of its foreign aid, better align the country’s aid agenda with its overall foreign policy, and tackle bureaucratic fragmentation.
Carnegie | The Logic Behind China’s Foreign Aid Agency
This article examines the history of Chinese foreign aid and the logic behind establishing the young China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) to help contextualize its status and the role it will play in the world.
CFE-DM | China's Multi-Pronged Approach to Gain Influence in Oceania
The five reports in this collection examine China’s growing diplomatic, military, economic, and strategic communication efforts in Oceania as it relates to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) and explains the implications for strategic competition in the region.
CFE-DM | The Evolution of China's Foreign Assistance, Liaison Journal Volume 13, Issue 2 (2021), pages 23 - 29
In the last decade, China’s foreign assistance program has expanded and diversified and is today one of the most important soft power tools the country wields in its competition with the United States. This article examines the evolution of Chinese foreign aid.
CFE-DM | The Evolving Nature of China’s Humanitarian Assistance, Liaison Journal Volume 10, Winter (2018), pages 35 - 48
This article explores the processes of humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) in China as well as investigates the leadership, structures, and policies that shape and drive Chinese HADR.
Chatham House | China’s overseas humanitarian action to assist refugees
This article aims to explore China’s overseas humanitarian action with a focus on the country’s approach to displacement crises and refugees.
CHR Michelsen Institute | The changing role of Chinese development aid
In recent years, China has significantly increased its development interventions. China is now among the major providers of aid to Africa. Foreign aid has become an important tool in the range of instruments applied by the Chinese state to boost its economic and political expansion.
Climate Security in Oceania | Perspectives on Chinese and American HADR in the Indo-Pacific Region
This article strives to outline American HADR in the Indo-Pacific, compare US efforts with China’s growing HADR role, and assess the implications for American and Chinese HADR efforts in the region.
Contemporary Southeast Asia | Status-seeking through Disaster Relief Cooperation: China and India in Southeast Asia
This article examines China and India's status-seeking efforts in Southeast Asia through the lens of disaster relief cooperation. It explores status-seeking processes and the region's responses, as well as how these shape the regional security order in the Asia-Pacific.
CNAS | Myths and Realities of China’s Military-Civil Fusion Strategy
This policy brief is intended to improve policymakers’ understanding of the challenges that military civil fusion in relation to PRC presents to enhance the U.S. government’s ability to grapple with these urgent policy issues. In particular, this analysis considers and seeks to correct several apparent myths—or at best generalizations and oversimplifications—that have been prominent in U.S. debates on the topic.
Defis Humanitaires | What is the Reality of Chinese Humanitarian Aid in Africa?
This article explores China’s policy in Africa in terms of development aid and even humanitarian aid. The phenomenon is relatively recent, poorly documented and has limited sources of information and often of official origin.
Devex | As China Steps Up Humanitarian Aid to the Pacific, can the US Keep up?
China's humanitarian courtship of the strategic Indo-Pacific region — which began while the United States and its allies were bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan — went unappreciated by the U.S. for many years. Now, the U.S and its allies are playing catch-up
Disasters Journal | Three legacies of humanitarianism in China
This paper seeks to examine the historical evolution of the concept of humanitarianism in China that as produced three legacies: (i) the ideal of a well-ordered state; (ii) anti-Western sentiment; and (iii) the notion of comprehensive development based on a human-oriented approach.
East Asia Forum | The rise of China and India's remote humanitarian aid
Emerging donors such as China and India seized the opportunity to increase their humanitarian footprint during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both countries provided humanitarian aid to over 150 countries and international organisations in 2020.
Enterprises, Localities, People, and Policy in the South China Sea | Disaster Management in the South China Sea: A Chance for Peace and Cooperation
In this book chapter, cooperative efforts in the field of disaster management in the South China Sea are explored as a way to serve as a positive example of successful regional cooperation,
European Journal of East Asian Studies | Image Building as Impetus for the Growth of the PLA's Engagement in International HA/DR Operations
The PLA’s engagement in HA/DR enables PRC to reassure the international community and change perceptions of its global intentions. However participating in such missions will require PRC to avoid short-term irritations and political speculation, hampering Beijing’s soft-power initiatives.
Humanitarian Advisory Group | Positive Disruption? China’s Humanitarian Aid
This short presentation has key information about China's aid contributions and places of delivery from 2009 to 2018.
International Journal of Education Development | China's engagement with the post-2015 development agenda: The case of education and training
China's South–South cooperation with African education and its human resource development (HRD) strategy may appear to run on different lines from those of traditional OECD donors. This article explores this in more detail.
ISW | People's Warfare against COVID-19: Testing China's Military Medical and Defense Mobilization Capabilities
The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the global order and reshaping the balance of power on the world stage. The lessons that nations and their militaries take from this crisis will be highly consequential to their capacity to adapt to this disruption and enhance their resilience going forward.
National University of Singapore | Elevating Regional Status Through Disaster Relief: China’s Approach and Challenges
China has been pursuing a higher status for itself in the regional security architecture by strengthening disaster relief cooperation with Southeast Asian states. This essay will assess China’s success in this endeavour.
National University of Singapore | HADR as a Diplomatic Tool in Southeast Asia-China Relations amid Changing Security Dynamics
How can ASEAN & China transform their existing diplomatic tools & cooperative mechanisms to ensure that the bilateral relationship remains strong? One way of strengthening the existing bilateral relationship is to increase cooperation in humanitarian assistance & disaster relief (HADR).
Navy Recognition | New hospital ship Nanyi-13 commissioned to Chinese Navy
PLA Navy's new hospital ship Nanyi-13 was officially commissioned at a military port on China's Yongshu Reef, Nansha Islands, on November 30, 2020, China Military Online reports.
RSIS | China’s Emerging Disaster Diplomacy: What It Means for Southeast Asia
The Chinese government formed two new bodies in 2018 that have been expected to improve China’s response to natural hazards and humanitarian emergencies in other countries. What are the implications for Southeast Asia, where the risk and threat of different types of disaster persist?
RSIS | Southeast Asia-China Cooperation in Disaster Management in Post-COVID Era
Disaster relief has been a channel for trust-building and reassurance between Southeast Asia and China since the 1990s. However, this research finds that China is yet to become a key player in disaster management in Southeast Asia, despite strengthened interactions and increased funding support.
RSIS | The Belt and Road Initiative: Vehicle for China’s Humanitarian Action?
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) encompasses overseas activities of diverse Chinese actors mainly focused on infrastructure projects and investments. China has increased its contributions to humanitarian projects in countries along the BRI routes, which are under-explored.
RSIS | US-China Rivalry and Implications for Humanitarian Action
Heightening US-China competition is now extended to humanitarian action in the Indo-Pacific. LINA GONG argues that subregions in the Indo-Pacific should strengthen cooperation among themselves and that existing multilateral mechanisms should continue confidence building activities and sensitise the big powers to the negative implications of sheer geopolitically driven relief efforts.
SIPRI | China's Evolving Approach to Foreign Aid
This policy paper provides analysis of evolving Chinese foreign aid perspectives, structure and practices. Highlighting key milestones in its evolution, the paper also explains some of the key drivers behind the changes, and identifies the challenges that China faces with this activity.
Stellenbosch University | Transparency of Chinese Aid: An analysis of the published information on Chinese external financial flows
This paper on China’s aid information aims to map and assess the levels of aid information made available across Chinese agencies that engage in various forms of international cooperation.
The Asia Foundation | Chinese Foundations and NGOs Cross Border to Aid Nepal
An article on how several major Chinese NGOs deployed response teams to Nepal and mobilized domestic resources for relief after the 2015 earthquake.
The China Review | China’s Disaster Diplomacy in Southeast Asia
This article examines how China has managed its bilateral and multilateral relations with the region through engagement on disaster management and explores the factors that have shaped the effectiveness of its diplomatic offense in this area.
The New Humanitarian | Behind China's Aid Structure
China’s role as an aid donor has been met with wariness, both from aid experts and recipients. Confusion over the nature of China’s aid arises because the country uses multiple ministries and agencies to give money, has different strategic priorities than traditional Western donors, and does not release detailed reports about how much aid it provides.
The New Humanitarian | Can Disaster Risk Reduction Lessons be Learned from China?
China, which annually faces almost every disaster possible - including earthquakes, floods, cyclones and landslides - is doing something right in the field of disaster risk reduction (DRR), experts say. Can these be learnt from?
The New Humanitarian | Charity Overhaul in China, But only with Government Approval
The world’s strongest storm of the year slammed into China last week, just as the country was recovering from severe flooding. In many nations, this would prompt a deluge of donations to disaster response, but not in China, which is ranked the second-least charitable country in the world.
The New Humanitarian | Coaxing the Dragon: Why China should Joint the Great Aid Debate
How much attention is being paid to China's growing role in the global humanitarian space? Not enough perhaps, but the wariness cuts both ways. This article argues it's time for China to get its hands dirty in the great aid debate.
The New Humanitarian | Piecing together the Chinese aid jigsaw
This article explores details of the Chinese aid budget, and the planning behind it, to assess how opaque Chinese aid to Africa actually is.
The New Humanitarian | Untangling China's Aid to Africa
Chinese leaders have been visiting the continent regularly for decades, quietly working on joint development, trade, foreign direct investment and assistance projects. Since 2000, China has ramped up its aid to Africa, leading to significant interest in and speculation over its motives for doing so.
The New Humanitarian | When Disaster Strikes, Should China to More?
The quick deployment after the 2015 Nepal earthquake was a sign of China’s growing role in emergencies, but critics say its humanitarian contributions are still paltry compared to its economic and diplomatic clout. But China's contributions do not match official pronouncements about its growing international role.
The New Humanitarian | Will Pressure Make Chinese Aid More Transparent?
Critics have long characterized China as a secretive donor in economically poor but resource-rich countries, funding infrastructure construction in an unspoken bid for business deals and access to natural wealth and land.
US Army War College | Great (Soft) Power Competition: US and Chinese Efforts in Global Health Engagement
Global health engagement, an underutilized strategy rooted in the strengths of soft power persuasion, can lead to more military-to-military cooperation, help establish relationships that can be relied on when crises develop, & stabilize fragile states (amongst other things) during the era of strategic competition.
US-China Economic and Security Review Commission | The Chinese Military’s Role in Overseas Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief: Contributions and Concerns
The PLA has increased its involvement in overseas HA/DR missions. Through its contributions to HA/DR, Beijing has provided important assistance to disaster-stricken populations but also furthered its political goals abroad.

Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR): Strategic Competition & HA/DR

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Strategic Competition and HA/DR

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