Humanitarianism as a tool of statecraft
Contested authority, sovereign violence, and humanity in the Syrian civil war
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3898539 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ümit Seven (0000-0003-2882-117X, Graduate School of Social Sciences Middle East Technical University Türkiye, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | e12659-e12659 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Disasters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0361-3666 • E-ISSN: 1467-7717 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/disa.12659 |
| PMID | 39344300 |
| OpenAlex | W4402998646 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 32 |
This research explores the dynamics of interaction between the sovereign state and international humanitarian organisations in alleviating human suffering in the Syrian civil war. Considering civil wars as a rupture in sovereignty, its focus is on the practices of the sovereign state within its social context and the resulting implications for aid organisations. I argue that the Syrian regime has employed state violence, in tandem with administrative and bureaucratic impediments, to reassert its sovereign authority in humanitarian decision-making processes. This exercise of sovereign power is intertwined with the actions of aid organisations, thereby reshaping power dynamics among the state, aid organisations, and vulnerable populations. Through a qualitative method, I show that the deployment of state violence concomitantly pushes aid organisations, specifically the United Nations, towards enforcing the state sovereignty defined by the regime. As an effect of assertive sovereignty, interpretations of humanitarian principles and practices are continuously negotiated and constructed differently by aid organisations, even though they share a common overarching goal
Bureaucracy · Civil society · Context (archaeology · Human rights · Humanitarian aid · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereign state · Sovereignty · State (computer science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Religion, Society, and Development
A hands-on guide to doing content analysis
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Homo Sacer
Emergency aid in intra-state war and implications for post-conflict reconstruction
Stifling stateness
Performative States
Civil war, contested sovereignty and the limits of global health partnerships
What constitutes the sovereign state
The trouble with humanitarianism
Humanitarianism with a Sovereign Face
Humanitarianism in intra-state conflict
Syria and the Neutrality Trap
Sovereignty Rupture as a Central Concept in Quantitative Measures of Civil War
State Sovereignty in International Relations
A Strategic Logic of Attacking Aid Workers
Conceptual Issues in the Comparative Study of Regime Change and Democratization
Mind the gap
Sovereign Bodies
States of Imagination
Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis
Humanitarianism, State Sovereignty, and Authoritarian Regime Maintenance in the Syrian War
The unintended consequences of emergency food aid
Field research in conflict environments
Introduction to the issue of state sovereignty and humanitarian action
International humanitarian actors and governments in areas of conflict
Sovereignty Revisited
Struggling to Perform the State
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |