Dr. Gerry O’Reilly1
Education: Humanitarian Crises and Emergency Action
Introduction
While everyone would agree that education and training is crucial for educators and those
‘working in the field’ in promoting the humanitarian and development imperative, there is
less agreement on how this is to be achieved. Having worked in the LDCs, and in
education in Ireland, I am convinced that educators are obliged to draw the connections
between teaching and learning, advocacy and activism which is a major challenge,
always running the risk of ‘dev. ed.’ fatigue, somewhat akin to ‘donor exhaustion’, or ‘the
usual suspects saying the same thing.’
With specific reference to humanitarian action, humanitarian crises refer to natural or
manmade situations that threaten large numbers of people. A natural disaster is the
consequence of hazardous events, occurring due to natural phenomenon, sometimes
impacted on by human activities (e.g., volcanic eruption, landslide etc.). When man-made
disasters (e.g., war) become intertwined with natural crises, complex humanitarian
emergencies occur. Human fatalities, and/or property damages depend on the capacity of
the population to support or resist disasters that occur when hazards meet vulnerability,
which is essentially the totality of the economic, political and social development level in
a given situation that in combination with environmental forces, produces a disaster.
Crises often relate to localized cases of destruction due to natural forces, war, famine or
epidemics and pandemics such as AIDS. Humanitarian aid is action taken by
governments, agencies or citizens aimed at saving lives, alleviating suffering and
maintaining human dignity of people in need. The vast majority (80%) of humanitarian
emergencies occur in low-income countries and global trends indicate that the number of
people threatened by disasters is growing by 70-80 million annually. This is driven by the
1
Geography Department, St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra
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principles of humanitarianism, impartiality, neutrality and independence as reiterated in
Ireland’s White Paper on Irish Aid (2006) (White Paper, 2006; Regan, 2006; O’Reilly,
2007a).
The epistemological and philosophical bases and necessity for interdisciplinarity are
implicit throughout this paper, while the practical needs for interdisciplinarity in relation
to any form of development education, training and skills as required by modern society
and also market needs are explicitly presented with contrasting case studies. Based on
the principles of interdisciplinarity, that is drawing from at least two academic
disciplines, professions, technologies, departments, their methods and insights, in the
pursuit of a common goal, interdisciplinary objectives focus on problems to be tackled,
where it is felt that the ‘problems’ cannot be solved within the strict confines of one
discipline or methodology (Awbrey and Awbrey, 1999; Newell, 2001). By its very nature,
geography and its sub-fields lends itself to this approach, as geography is a holistic field
of study bridging both the physical/earth/ecological and human sciences examining
human-environmental relationship in spatial contexts analyzing aerial differentiation,
cause and effect, and hence the importance of mapping. The approach may be regional or
thematic, or a combination of both.
Illustrating the importance of education I will present two contrasting case studies of
work, in which I am involved. Case study 1, deals with a course given on Humanitarian
Action for third year BEd. and BA students (approximately 150 in 2007) as part of their
degree programme in St. Patrick’s College, DCU, Dublin via integrated lectures, case
studies, projects and audio-visual material. In both case studies, and especially the
second, it must be noted that interdisciplinarity is also used where ‘the subject’ does not
fit comfortably into traditional disciplines, or was neglected, or where the ‘customer’ is
asking for a ‘new product or approach’.
This will be analysed in the context of
geography’s contribution to a master’s programme in Humanitarian Action, delivered at
UCD, Dublin, and six other European universities, and associated institutions worldwide
via the EU’s Erasmus Mundus, which has become a model for other European postgraduate programmes. Here, different disciplines including geography, contribute their
approaches to tackle the problem at hand, including team-taught courses. Students are
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required to understand how a given subject can be examined by different disciplines or
from various perspectives and methods, especially in problem solving, training and skills
acquisition.
Case Study 1: Geography and Humanitarian Action
This course in Geography and Humanitarian Action is delivered in the Geography
Department SPD, DCU, to third year BEd. and BA students and builds on the theoretical
concepts mastered in first and second year dealing with development, sustainability, good
governance and citizenship, applied especially in their own environments, before the
cognitive leap into the more distant locations. In the course description it is stated that an
understanding of development and geopolitics is essential in emergency or humanitarian
assistance relating to both natural and manmade disasters, offering aid in the field to
vulnerable populations at risk; and in education, decision-making, conflict resolution and
post conflict sustainable development.
The aims of the course are to analyse how relationships between physical environments
and human geography intertwine creating many processes including economic and
political phenomena, at various scales - local to global – but within specific development
contexts and related to humanitarian space; and also to familiarise students with Irish
Government policy such as that found in the White Paper on Development Policy (2006).
The objectives of the course are to familiarise students with the evolution and
methodologies in development geography encouraging holistic perspectives on
humanitarian crises and problems; to develop analyses of humanitarian action from
geopolitical perspectives in contemporary international relations; to expose students to
Irish and international GOs and NGOs specialising in education in emergencies such as
UNESCO and INEE (Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies); and to
reinforce concepts as prescribed in Primary and Secondary Level Geography Curricula
(Curricula, 2007).
The main themes of the course are divided under three major headings:
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Part 1 Development, Vulnerability and Risks, the rationale: While it would be rare to
find anyone arguing against the basic benefits of development, there is less accord on
how this positive change is to be achieved, its benefits distributed, and at what
geographical scales this can occur. Levels of development correlate with a community’s
ability to cope with humanitarian emergencies. Session (X 2 hours): 1 Back to Basics and
Our Futures; 2 Development: Problems, Solutions and Discourses; 3 Millennium
Development Goals; 4 Politics and Development.
Part 2 Geopolitical Perspectives - Humanitarian Disasters and Actions: The negative
impact of any humanitarian disaster – natural, manmade or complex – is directly
proportional to the level of development of the population affected. However there are
major differences in the type and quality of humanitarian responses given to the affected
populations. Session (X 2 hours):
5 Humanitarian Action; 6 Geopolitics and
Humanitarian Action; 7 Ireland and Humanitarian Space; 8 Education and Humanitarian
Space.
Part 3 Humanitarian Action: Conflict and Post-Conflict - Case Studies in Humanitarian
Space: Each humanitarian disaster is unique due to different combinations of
geographical and geopolitical factors; nonetheless it would be somewhat hypocritical for
the international community to accept humanitarian emergencies and tragedies as a fait
accompli. Early warning signs of potential disasters, and early warning systems are
possible and often available to prevent or at least attenuate the impacts of humanitarian
emergencies. Session (X 2 hours): 9-12 Case Studies - these vary depending on student
interests and also whatever the current humanitarian emergencies are e.g., Darfur,
Myanmar / Burma.
While this course is ambitious, it builds on other courses that the students have followed
at the Geography Department including Rural Development and Sustainability, Reading
the Irish Landscape, Fieldtrips in Rural and Urban Spaces. In first and second year the
integrated theoretical framework is set so to speak around sustainable development.
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In this context, sustainable development (SD) is defined as referring to long lasting or
durable positive change, by using the environment in such a way as to fulfil our
economic and social needs without destroying the resources upon which we, and future
generations depend. SD theory aims at getting a balance between our ecological (web of
life), economic (livelihood) and socio-cultural (lifestyle) needs where none of these
domains suffer irreparable damage via such phenomena as pollution, destruction of
resources including heritage sites, mass unemployment, or too rapid cultural change
leading to social destruction. Resources - anything which society places a value on - may
be renewable or non-renewable, so once the latter is exhausted or destroyed, then it is
gone forever (O’Reilly, 2001). Development or positive change is associated with
innovation and diffusion processes often linked to technology - ranging from
domestication methods and stone tools of the Neolithic Revolution evident at Newgrange,
in the Boyne Valley, to the software of the Microchip Revolution now taking place in
Ireland. A society cut off from, or refusing to integrate innovative processes lags behind
and often becomes underdeveloped. However the type, scale and use of technological
innovation has to be mediated by political institutions and democratic processes in order
to avoid environmental, economic and social breakdown (O’Reilly, 2004).
In the good governance framework, governmental organisations (GOs) or state funded
top-down (TD) institutions (e.g., EU DGs and Commissions, Irish Departments of
Environment, Agriculture, Education, UN organs, World Bank and International
Monetary Fund), must interact and plan policy in harmony with bottom-up needs in order
to avoid overt conflict, and non-sustainable authoritarianism or anarchy. Bottom-up (BU)
organisations, premised on good citizenship, are those which are not directly financed or
controlled by the state and include NGOs, student unions, local development and
LEADER groups, Farmers Associations, Residents Associations, Trocaire, CONCERN,
Greenpeace, Amnesty International etc. However, real people in actual places, with local
knowledge of needs and solutions often feel cut off from decision-making and the socalled democratic deficit. It is here that top-down must meet bottom-up in relation to
technology, change and development (O’Reilly, 2007b).
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The majority of courses given in geography at SPD-DCU, reinforce these principles of
sustainable development and good citizenship from different perspectives as do the
fieldtrip courses starting in first year in both urban and rural areas while post-conflict
issues are presented in fieldwork in Belfast and development of the shared heritage space
at the Battle of the Boyne (1690) site (O’Reilly, 2007b).
Fieldtrip Sample: Symbolic places and contested spaces in the Boyne Valley - citizenship
and democracy
“The Boyne Valley provides a microcosm of Ireland’s landscapes, geography, history and
culture – in which we can read the story of not only the past but also modern Ireland. This
story is presented from the perspective of sustainable development and issues of conflict
and identity. The trip includes a visit of the Bru Na Boinne Visitor Centre and associated
Neolithic sites (UNESCO World Heritage Site). Close by, Monasterboice with its Celtic
crosses and round-tower gives an insight into Ireland’s ‘Golden Age’, while Mellifont
Abbey (12-15th century) illustrates Norman influences on Ireland’s heritage. While
travelling through the site of the Battle of the Boyne (1690) we can see its lasting imprint
in estates and ‘planned village’ landscapes dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. 21st
century visitors to the Valley also enjoy the bocage landscapes while at the same time
examining the impact of the EU Common Agricultural Policy, tourism and the planned
sites for waste incineration in the region” (O’Reilly, 2004).
Emphasis can be placed on one strand of the trip, as with the Oldbridge Battle of the
Boyne site (1690) in the Republic of Ireland, which was purchased by the Irish state
(2000) that plans to create a Visitor Centre there catering for different traditions in the
context of the Northern Ireland Peace Process (1998). This place is central to identity
foundation concepts of UK Unionist citizens in Northern Ireland, and hence the spatial
paradox. Here diverse standpoints are presented - the Irish Government, Unionist –
Orange, and nationalist - Green traditions, and third level bilingual BEd. geography
students engage in interactive learning. Discussions include sustainability of heritage
space, values and feelings that may be connected with Oldbridge, and future site usage,
as well as peace building and reconciliation (O’Reilly, 2007b).
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Hence students are exposed to the possibilities of interdisciplinarity and its relevance
through the foundation concepts of sustainable development in their local, national and
global environments, and also to the multi-layered levels of this in education (1st, 2nd and
3rd levels) (Curricula, 2007). This is concretised with perspectives and case studies on
humanitarian action, pointing out work opportunities in government and private sectors,
NGOs and so forth, but especially the importance of lobbying, advocacy and activism.
Case Study 2 Interdisciplinary - Geopolitics and Humanitarian Action
Humanitarian action tackling the alleviation of human suffering and the associated
social, medical, economic, political, logistical and legal problems is an imperative with
an agenda that does not fit within any one academic discipline (Weiss, 2007). It is for
this reason that ECHO (European Communities Humanitarian Office) has fostered the
inter-university and interdisciplinary Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA), for
which ‘geographical’ input is an imperative; I am the geopolitics coordinator for its
activities in Ireland (EUROPA ECHO, 2007; NOHA, 2007).
In this context, the MSc(Agr)/MAgrSc/Higher Diploma in Humanitarian Action is a
taught masters programme offered by the School of Biology and Environmental
Science, at UCD, Dublin. UCD is one of seven European Universities that offer this
programme with support from ECHO. The masters programme caters for experienced
humanitarian workers and recent graduates from a range of disciplines. Successful
applicants on this programme challenge the key humanitarian concepts, principles and
practices.
What follows is a sample of the programme content, which is similar in all seven
universities concerning the basic modules delivered between September and
January which all students follow; while from February to May, each university
delivers an indepth programme based on one or more of the core module areas
e.g., Uppsala University - geopolitics, Aix-Marseilles – International Humanitarian
Law, Dublin – Agriculture, rural development and communications. Once the first
semester has been completed, students have the option of specialising in any of the
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participant universities. From June to October, students who have not worked
directly in the field, spend time on placements.
Table 1 NOHA Masters Programme
General Programme – Semester 1
P001
Intensive Programme, for all
P002
NOHA staff and students
International Humanitarian
Law
P003
Medicine – Epidemiology
P005
Geopolitics
P006
Management
P014
Anthropology
Specialisation – Semester 2
P021
Development Issues and
Credits Total
5
5
5
5
5
5
30
5
P022
P023
Strategies
Communications
Management of Societies in
5
5
P024
P025
P111
Transition
Research Methods
Sociology of Development
Research Proposal
5
5
5
30
Development
Research Component (associated with a
relevant internship)
P026
Minor Thesis
TOTAL CREDITS
30
30
90
Note: The data for semester 2 here is based on the programme at Uppsala University.
The programme is an Erasmus Mundus Masters Programme in International
Humanitarian Action within the framework of the Socrates system and part of
cooperation between the universities of Universidad de Deusto, Spain, Ruhr-Universität
Bochum, Germany, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, Université AixMarseille, France, University College Dublin, Ireland, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The
Netherlands, and Uppsala University. The programme is given in cooperation with the
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European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), and the degree is based at different
departments and schools throughout the EU and is carried out in cooperation with various
departments including Agriculture, Law, Department of Peace and Conflict Research,
Anthropology, Health and so forth. There is an optional module in Geography, while the
module on Geopolitics is obligatory, and also embraces the basic geographical
perspectives, skills and training necessary for practitioners.
The aim of the masters programme is to prepare students who have a first cycle degree in
a discipline of relevance for work with different forms of international humanitarian
action. The programme gives a broad introduction to humanitarian action and aims, as an
interdisciplinary programme, to enable students to elaborate a qualified analysis and
evaluation of humanitarian action initiatives from different academic perspectives. The
programme brings to the fore geographical, geopolitical, legal, cultural, anthropological,
and medical perspectives as well as peace and conflict, and management and
development issues. Within the programme questions regarding the role of religions,
gender, ethnicity, multi-culturalism, ethics, and globalisation in relation to international
humanitarian action work are also discussed.
The aim of the programme is to provide the student with a capacity to: develop an
interdisciplinary understanding and comprehensive analysis of emergency situations;
assess ways of intervention used by humanitarian action agencies; assess consequences of
international intervention and programs of reconstruction; organise and plan humanitarian
relief operations; be aware of the potential impact of humanitarian action on the life of
the beneficiaries; be able to react and take decisions in an operational setting and use
appropriate evaluation methods and techniques.
The geography and geopolitics modules offer the basic geographical skills, analytical and
methodological techniques as well as the perspectives necessary for applied humanitarian
action. Such ranges from basic map reading and deconstruction, to data evaluation and
production of basic maps, to world-systems theory and so forth. However the task for
development and constant updating of such a syllabus is problematic considering the
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ever-changing humanitarian action environment including actors, stakeholders and
theatres of operations ranging from local to national, international and global scales.
The Rationale Behind Developing Geopolitics and Geography syllabi and module
materials for Humanitarian Action!
Of course, the practical and pragmatic imperatives of geopolitical and geographical
understandings and skills are explicit in the course content along with: definitions and
conceptualisations of geopolitics and development; the state of Humanitarian Assistance
since the 1990s; Humanitarian Emergencies: society, culture and emergencies;
Environment and Migration; Refugees and IDPs. This is enhanced with geopolitical
approaches to: (i) global issues, (ii) humanitarian risk and (iii) aid / action.
In Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American (1955) and subsequent film versions
(directed by Joseph Mankiewicz (1958) and Phillip Noyce (2002)), set in Vietnam in the
1950s, Fowler a middle-aged British reporter, whose main attachment to the country is
his young mistress Phuong comments on Pyle, a fresh-faced American who has come
there with genuine intentions of helping the Vietnamese. Ostensibly Pyle is working on
development issues, but is imbued with a geopolitical mindset of 1950s anti-communism
discourses in the USA. However in the increasingly degenerating ‘decolonising’ political
environment of French withdrawal, Pyle's actions causes the death of innocent
Vietnamese and this leads Fowler to comment: "I never knew a man who had better
motives for all the trouble he caused". In the evolving tragedy and Pyle’s actions, Greene
comments: “Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world,
meaning no harm.”
Besides the obligation of humanitarian organisations and individual aid workers to help
ensure their own protection and lives, political geographical ‘innocence’ can be an
obstacle to furthering good work, or can be exploited by any number of actors in a
humanitarian emergency, defeating the basic objective of the humanitarian imperative to
help victims of disaster. Such accusations have been levelled in relation to the Rwandan
genocide (1994) and NGO assistance given to Hutu genocidal factions in the early days
of the tragedy, especially in the melee of the infamous Goma refugee camps; while there
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also have been numerous criticisms of UN inaction there as poignantly illustrated in Terry
George’s film Hotel Rwanda (2004) and Raoul Peck’s Sometimes in April (2005).
Similarly, in southern Sudan during the protracted civil wars (1955-2005), warlords
exacted tolls or payment from humanitarian NGOs for safe transit in order to reach
endangered populations, while profits were often used to sustain warfare contributing to
the humanitarian disaster. Another form of this ‘innocence’ was demonstrated with
respect to the US-led UN humanitarian missions in Somalia (1991-93), in Ridley Scott’s
2001 movie Black Hawk Down, based on Mark Bowden’s novel, where those US Army
Rangers trying to assure peace and security that would facilitate aid delivery became the
targets. Hence those involved in humanitarian assistance, at whatever level, need a
holistic perspective of the crisis and geopolitical context, whatever their role or level of
humanitarian commitment.
The aim of the syllabus is to connect basic concepts in geography and geopolitics, to
humanitarian assistance issues, with the intention of encouraging critical debate from aid
practitioners and students, as well as those interested more generally in the area of
humanitarian action. While I have worked on different aspects of development, and
humanitarian action issues, for many years, the incentive for creating this syllabus and
associated materials lies in the questions that postgraduate students and practitioners ask.
There are approximately, 24 students per year, out of requests from some 80 people
annually, and are from various national and cultural backgrounds, and different academic
disciplines and work-paths, organisations and institutions but with the objective of
returning to, or working in the humanitarian space area (see Table 2). Talking to students
and especially postgraduate scholars, as well as people in training, or already working in
the area of humanitarian action, I have come across diverse perspectives but all with a
strong desire to understand why a particular disaster occurred or is occurring, whether for
natural or manmade reasons, or a complex mixture of both, and their own or their
organisations’ role and what can be done.
Table 2 Representative sample of NOHA Student Profiles 2004-07
No Gender Nationality
1
Female Irish
Academic
Social Science
11
Experience
Supervisor
production centre
Extras
Decided on career
change
2
6
Business Adm.
and Economy
Female Dutch
Int’l. Dev.
Studies
Female Italian
Communication
Disciplines
Female Italian/British Languages and
Int.l Comms.
Female Irish
Psychology
7
Female Belgian
8
Male
9
Female USA/Brazil
10
Female American
11
Female Dutch
12
Female Irish
13
Female Belgian
14
15
Male
Male
Ugandan
Irish
16
Male
Irish
17
Female Belgian
18
Female German
19
Female American
20
Male
21
22
Female Ugandan
Female Irish
23
Male
24
Female Irish
3
4
5
Female French
Irish
French
S. African
Int’l. and Dev.
Studies
Science and
Dev. Studies
Radio/TV/film
Business
Administration
Sociology
Volunteer
Ecuador/Germany/India
Advisory Person
in HA
European
voluntary service
UNCTD/OHCHR
Active in voluntary
work
Editor and photographer
Women and
Israel / Palestine
Volunteer
Educated outside RoI
Trading
Refugee documentation
centre
Worked in tsunami
disaster area.
Animal husbandry
Production
coordinator
Marketing
Coordinator
Junior researcher
Law / European OCHA Relief
Studies
web
Sociology
NGOs, Self
Governance
Medicine
Hospital Uganda
Industrial
Designer
Design
Social Science Military and Irish
NGOs
Political
Volunteer
Science
Anthropology,
Health care
Media Arts,
manager
Arabic
Political
Child family
Science
health volunteer
Development
MSF / NGOs
Coordination
Microfinance
Microfinance
Nursing studies Hospitals in
Gaza, Goma,
Timor Leste,
Yugoslavia etc.
Military
RSA,
Mozambique
Medical doctor Afghanistan, Iraq
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Language professor
Ecuador/India/Singapore
Interned in SA Cape
Town
Teacher
Platform with Brazil and
Bolivia
Worked in N-Uganda
Company partner
Many
diplomas/certificates
Honduras/Ghana
Ethnographic
fieldworker
Med. office coordinator
Africa focused
Africa
ICRC, OCHRA
Namibia.
Strong lobbying and
etc. Goal etc.
advocacy experience.
25 Male
Myanmar
Medical doctor MSF
26 Female Polish
Int’l. Studies
Yugoslavia,
Education. Research.
and Geopolitics Kosovo.
Reconstruction.
Source: Student cohort 2005-07 (NB, students filled in the rubrics themselves in their
own words).
Those students who have worked in the field carry their own experiences and memories
ranging from the Rwandan genocide and its body bags, to imagined ‘safe havens’ during
the Yugoslav crises, to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the exact local areas and
peoples with whom they worked. They are fully aware that ‘when elephants fight the
grass gets trampled’. But like those students in training, they often want to understand the
larger geographies and bigger geopolitical picture, and connect that with the local and
national geographical contexts. In trying to make sense of specific emergencies, the
political context usually comes to the fore and there is particular interest in the
geopolitical implications and interpretations for such human tragedies as those, which
occurred in Timor Leste, Kosovo and Sudan, as well as the local, national and
international responses to them. In seminars, many practitioners and students alike from
non-geography or non-social science backgrounds often contribute fresh perspectives on
humanitarian issues, and are avid in their search, trying to ‘fill in the gaps’ when it comes
to geopolitics as key components in the conceptual underpinning of their established or
future careers in the field, NGOs, public and private institutions.
Practitioners in humanitarian assistance come from many backgrounds ranging from
development professionals, medical doctors, nurses and public health workers, to
lawyers, economists, and those with expertise in food, water, sanitation, logistics,
transport, languages, politics, education, media, journalism and so forth. Frustration or
anger is often evident when a humanitarian emergency, such as Darfur (2003-), is
discussed. Frustration at the repetition of tragedies, despite the collective experience of
having seen it all before, and the often expressed ‘Never again’ refrain coined after the
Holocaust. And the anger is there, as in “why don’t ‘they’ do something”- elucidating
exactly who ‘they’ are, is not always easy. ‘They’ usually pertains to the United Nations
and associated institutions, or inter-governmental organisations, or national governments,
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while discussion of the protagonists sometimes runs the risk of falling into oversimplified binary logic, Good versus Evil, Black versus Less Black, Muslim versus nonMuslim, Catholic versus Protestant, Slobodan Milosevic versus Albanian Kosovars, the
USA versus whoever is in conflict and so forth. While some tolerance is shown relating
to certain humanitarian crises due to natural disasters as in the 2004 Indian Ocean
Earthquake and tsunami, this is not so when the emergencies are largely manmade as in
Darfur or Kosovo. However, people in the humanitarian action space are very aware that
in order to achieve the humanitarian objective, a balance has to be struck between the
duty of advocacy on behalf of those to be aided and the often thorny ethical predicament
of attributing blame; to misquote the poet, W. B. Yates, ‘Did certain words of mine send
out men, … women and children … that were shot’.
In humanitarian space, and training of aid workers, the geopolitical strands are everpresent whether in an explicit or implicit manner in any location. In many ways the
hyperlink film style helps illustrate this. This hyperlink genre follows multiple story lines
and diverse characters. The story and protagonists interconnect subtly. Events in one
story affect other story lines or characters, often unknown to the protagonists in
worldwide locations, various languages, and use of flashback and flash-forward. This
style is not as ‘bitty’ as sometimes suggested but has defined parameters in terms of art
direction, cinematography and setting used in each story line, creating an abrupt visual
break when cutting between characters and lines.
Complex and ever-present geopolitical and ethical issues, along with the duty of
humanitarian workers to bear witness in crisis situations are looked at from different
perspectives in such films as director, Michael Winterbottom’s, Welcome to Sarajevo
(1997) where in 1992, ITN reporter Henderson travels to the besieged capital of BosniaHerzegovina, in the Former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, where he meets star
journalist Flynn on the hassle for exciting stories and gory pictures. Their work permits
them haunting images of the suffering of Sarajevo’s people. The situation changes when
Henderson makes a report from an orphanage in which two hundred children live in
desperate conditions, and eventually he adopts Natasha; with the script based on the real
experiences recounted in the 1994 book Natasha’s Story by Michael Nicholson.
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The role of the illicit diamond trade in tandem with mercenaries, middlemen and transnational corporations in fuelling war, warlords and human misery in conflict zones is
depicted in director Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond (2006) set in the in Sierra Leone
Civil War (1999). The film shows a country torn apart by the struggle between
government soldiers and rebel forces and portrays many atrocities including rebels
cutting off people's hands to prevent them from voting in elections. Here many
‘Developed World’ discourses relating to international finance, self-regulation, ethical
trade and so forth are called into question. Similarly on the issue of ethics, transnational
corporations and human misery John le Carré's novel The Constant Gardener (2001) and
Fernando Meirelles’ film (2005) of the same name, tells the story of Justin Quayle, a
British diplomat in Nairobi whose wife Tessa, a development worker, is murdered in the
context of an international conspiracy of corrupt bureaucracy and TNC pharmaceutical
money.
In any emergency or disaster area, taking cognisance of the local human-environmental
relationships – ecological, economic, social and cultural – in political and geopolitical
contexts, and in their specific geographical scales, is crucial in order to make any
humanitarian aid impact and so fulfil the humanitarian imperative. However, this is
becoming increasingly more difficult due to globalisation in its myriad forms including
economic, institutional and humanitarian organisations. While a person specialising in
humanitarian aid cannot have expertise in everything ranging from environmental impact
assessment to transport logistics and geopolitics, in order to contribute to positive
rehabilitation and long lasting change in the affected areas, they need a certain holistic
humanitarian perspective. For instance, an understanding of the geographical setting in
which the (potential, unfolding or post) humanitarian tragedy is played out, and the wider
scales of regional, national and international interests and power impacting on the
specific people, area and event, i.e., spatiality or the way in which territorial space is
thought of as affecting the organisation of a given phenomenon such as social relations,
or the specialisation of power (Agnew, 2003).
Considering the varied academic backgrounds, training and hands-on experience of
workers and students in the humanitarian space area, their individual needs are different
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and so also are ‘academic lacunae’ e.g., nurses, public health workers or administrators in
relation to geographies in humanitarian space in contrast to people with geography, social
or political science backgrounds. Hence based on my own experience, practitioner and
student needs and requests, the different themes of the syllabus are chosen and so help to
provide some insights and orientations towards further reading, depending on the needs
of the individual students and practitioners.
Frequently asked questions and discussion topics include:
How can we define development, vulnerability levels and their relationship to
Humanitarian action (HA) from geopolitical perspectives?
How can HA be defined?
What is geopolitics and its role in creating the problem, and in finding durable
solutions?
How can geopolitics be used to alleviate or avoid humanitarian disasters?
What is the response of the international community, organisations and states to
complex humanitarian emergencies? And how can these be improved?
What is the ‘so called’ right of interference/intervention and D2P (Duty to Protect)
in the context of humanitarian action, and the arguments for and against it?
Why are certain countries termed as failed states, especially in post-colonial
regions?
Is there a difference between religious fundamentalism, and Islamism, which is
trying to use religion as a geopolitical force?
Are there relationships between humanitarian assistance and geopolitics, and
associated issues such as sustainable development; or refugees; mass media and
NGOs?
As part of their course students are required to take a ‘crisis situation’ and to analyse it
with reference to humanitarian action, with an emphasis on geography and geopolitical
perspectives. Humanitarian crisis and action simulations are becoming more embedded
within the NOHA network, as with the close collaboration for simulations between the
NOHA team in Bochum University, the German Red Cross and Federal Army.
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The fact that this post-graduate programme has been running for almost a decade and has
adapted to the ever-changing humanitarian environment, including contributions from
geography is proof of the absolute necessity and viability of interdisciplinary studies and
research. This fact is borne out by the sponsorship offered by state, intergovernmental
and private institutions; while student demand to join the programme remains high, and a
significant number are now doing doctoral research in the area, while students graduating
in Dublin have all gained employment at national, EU and international levels.
Conclusions
In many areas interdisciplinary is an absolute necessity driven by the requirements of
modern society and the market. However it cannot become a ‘pot pourri’ with a ‘little bit
of this and that’ as this would undermine the student’s real depth of knowledge and skills,
and also the integrity and proven validity of the vast majority of academic disciplines
including geography. However, as is well known the ‘culling’ of certain areas within
academic disciplines is also necessary in order to encourage them to adapt to the needs of
society and the market; here interdisciplinarity may offer suggestions as to salient areas
within disciplines, which have to be strengthened – drawing on the best, for best practice
and delivery. This is becoming more evident in specific areas such as development
education and studies.
In both case studies presented I have tried to illustrate the reality of interdisciplinarity in
education in relation to methodology, syllabi and content as well as the requirements of
society and the market. In Case Study 1, the future studies and career paths of
undergraduate students is presented; while this is contrasted with the contribution of
geography and geopolitics to a post-graduate programme in Humanitarian Action. Thus
both ends of the spectrum are presented so to speak. Of course both these examples are
works in progress and cannot be interpreted as definitive, but rather as interdisciplinary
experiences contributing to education dealing with development, humanitarian crises and
action.
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