Description
Examines the UN's provision of humanitarian aid during the Syrian Civil War to show where international law and practice needs to change
About the Author
Carsten Wieland is a German diplomat, senior UN consultant, Middle East and conflict expert with high-ranking mediation experience. He has served with three UN Special Envoys for Syria as Senior Expert for Intra-Syrian Talks and political advisor. He has also worked on political responses to the Syrian conflict for the German Foreign Office and as Director of the German Information Center for the Arab World in Cairo. A journalist by training, he reported from the United States, the Middle East and Latin America as a foreign correspondent. He was a Government Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Geneva, and a fellow at the Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA. His publications include Syria: A Decade of Lost Chances (2012), Syria - Ballots or Bullets (2006) and Syria at Bay: Secularism, Islamism, and "Pax Americana" (2006).
Reviews
Hats off to Wieland for giving us food for thought at this critical crossroad in the evolution of humanitarian aid. I hope it leads the UN, donors, and humanitarian organizations to reflect seriously about how they can change their approach to delivering humanitarian aid during an armed conflict before we repeat the deadly mistakes of Syria. * The Middle East Journal *
Wieland deserves ample praise for his decision to write a book that catalogs in exhausting detail the failings of an institution he admires so much. One hopes that his former colleagues understand the book as an effort to strengthen United Nations, not embarrass it. * War on the Rocks *
A masterpiece, this book is a riveting call for action to prevent governments that massacre their own citizens from directing who shall, and who shall not, receive donor-funded life-saving emergency help. -- Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs 2012-2018
A highly interesting and original study based on many years of practical and intensive experience of Carsten Wieland, who served as a diplomat and an academic, dealing with the Middle East, Syria in particular, also in the intra-Syrian negotiations under the auspices of the UN Special Envoy for Syria. This book clearly explains the complicated juridical, humanitarian and political dimensions of the various dilemmas of delivering humanitarian aid during wars. Wieland provides an authoritative guide on how to better deal with delicate humanitarian issues, like those in Syria. It should be highly recommended reading for politicians, humanitarian negotiators, people active in the field of humanitarian aid and other decision makers. -- Nikolaos van Dam, Former Ambassador of the Netherlands and author of Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria
This in an extraordinary book on humanitarian law and practice in the Syria conflict. By a scholar-practitioner with many years of experience studying Syria and acting as advisor to the UN mediator on the country, it is a model of how theoretical concerns and practical experience in policy making can cross fertilize each other. -- Raymond Hinnebusch, Professor of International Relations, University of St Andrews Centre for Syrian Studies, UK
The most convincingly argued call yet to take international humanitarian aid out of the control of unaccountable governments that use sovereignty as a pretext - the ultimate exposure of sovereignty as fake neutrality. -- Eberhard Kienle, Research Professor at the Centre des recherches internationales (CERI), Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) & SciencesPo, Paris, France
Book Information
ISBN 9780755641390
Author Carsten Wieland
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint I.B. Tauris
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 330g