Humanitarian NGOs proclaim themselves to be non-political practitioners of a universal mission – to provide aid to the world’s poor and those affected by disasters. However, organisations often clash over the practical meaning of ethical action in challenging circumstances. During the Cold War, divisions over how to engage with governments, refugee populations and funding bodies were all conditioned by underlying interpretations of the relevance (and desirability) of superpower ambitions. Examining the operations of two NGOs, Oxfam and MSF, during the 1980s, this book connects the influence of British and French political cultures (and colonial pasts) with opposing political visions of solidarity and principled humanitarian action in the global Cold War. Across three case-studies – the post-Khmer Rouge Cambodian crisis, the Ethiopian famine, and the plight of Salvadoran refugees fleeing civil war to Honduras – the book highlights the importance of national contexts in shaping Western understandings of suffering in the Global South, and explores how these backgrounds interacted with the politically polarised nature of international aid in this period. In so doing, it shows how nascent sectoral norms were negotiated on the ground as organisations drew on distinct visions of the purpose of humanitarian action, thus revealing the tensions inherent in the provision of material aid and the evocation of human rights.

Salvadoran Refugee Camps In Honduras 1988. Credit @MSF