NGOs as national political actors during the Cold War: A comparison of Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam’s humanitarian programmes in the Global South, 1979-1988
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2023-09-28Author
Cullen, Maria
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Abstract
This thesis examines the operations of two NGOs, Oxfam and MSF, as examples of European
(Northern) humanitarian action in the Global South during the 1980s. By the end of the
decade, these organisations were the most influential humanitarian NGOs in their
respective countries. It uses the Cambodian crisis, the Salvadoran refugee crisis in Honduras,
and the Ethiopian famine as case studies through which to examine the impact of these
organisations’ interventions on the ground. In so doing, the thesis brings in the voices of the
South and examines how the messy realities of Oxfam and MSF’s universalising projects
interacted with the goals of local actors. The 1980s was a decade characterised by soaring
international inequalities and the acceleration of bipolar confrontation through proxy
conflicts. The Salvadoran and Cambodian crises represented two of the largest and most
protracted refugee and internal displacement crises, and the Ethiopian famine represented
the deadliest sub-Saharan African famine of the decade. These three cases were also
significant because of how they shaped the development of the humanitarian sector and
helped craft a set of norms of humanitarian practice that were institutionalised in the
1990s. In dissecting the political, personal and economic considerations that lay behind
Oxfam and MSF’s opposing visions of ethical action in these diverse contexts, the thesis asks
broader questions about the nature of nongovernmental humanitarian aid, and how its
practice evolved over the course of the 1980s. The national comparative approach
employed here focuses on national particularities and highlights their importance in shaping
Western understandings of suffering and ethical intervention in the Global South. Finally,
the thesis also situates itself within the flourishing field of new Cold War history writing that
seeks to move beyond the state to illuminate the experiences of civilians as social and
political actors in this era.
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