Disasters are not only random events. They are also the product of the interaction between man and nature on the one hand, the dynamics of collective action within and between societies on the other. These disasters are the field of activity of humanitarian organizations which have gained in...

The nature of intra-state conflicts and the political manipulation of humanitarian aid in the 1990s has led to the popular postulate that humanitarianism has to be included as an instrument for peacebuilding efforts. So far, the debate surrounding such a linkage has largely ignored the nature...

This analysis of the social and political orientations of the Swedish humanitarian field, comprising here both NGOs active in humanitarian projects and the governmental Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency (SIDA), reveals once more the dominance of the Swedish social democratic...

The paper focuses on the relationship between security policy and humanitarianism, two policy fields with different roles. In the case of violent domestic conflict they get inevitably very close where distance between them – at least from the humanitarian perspective - should be greatest. This...

Given the amount of suffering in the world, do we have the capacity to provide the necessary humanitarian assistance? Assuming that this is the case: are both the governments and the populations willing to carry that burden in the future as they have done in the past? In order to answer these...

Since the end of the Cold War both preventive action and humanitarian assistance have become exceptionally attractive. Especially prevention has widely been praised as the solution to the various forms of violent conflict. In addition to the shifts in prevention, humanitarian aid has experienced...

Können humanitäre Organisationen ihren Auftrag, unparteilich und neutral Hilfe zu leisten, in dem totalitären Handlungsumfeld Nordkoreas erfüllen? Die empirische Analyse der Arbeitsbedingungen von Hilfsorganisationen, die in Nordkorea Lebensmittelhilfe im weitesten Sinne leisten, führt zu...

This paper addresses model design and data-related issues pertaining to the use of risk assessment models in support of conflict early warning systems. The paper first examines the data needed for risk assessment models. It argues that there are actually two types of data that we must collect...

Im Zuge der Transformation des ostdeutschen Wissenschaftssystems sahen sich viele Wissen-schaftlerInnen der Industrieforschung und der anwendungsnahen Forschung der Akademie der Wissenschaften damit konfrontiert, ihre Forschung trotz teilweise positiver Evaluation nicht in den bisherigen...

In the GDR, science was largely oriented on underpinning political objectives and in particular on promoting the economy. On the basis of a linear model of research and innovation processes, a specific hierarchically structured organizational and management structure for research was created and...