Humanitarian Diplomacy: Assessing Policies, Practices and Impact of New Forms of Humanitarian Action and Foreign Policy

Negotiating access to humanitarian aid in the context of conflict and complex emergencies continues to be a major concern for policy makers and humanitarian actors. This project investigated the policies, practices and impact of humanitarian diplomacy as conducted by select state actors (Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates) and international humanitarian actors, for instance the UNOCHA. Amidst new and old armed conflicts and ongoing humanitarian emergencies, there is an increasing use of humanitarian diplomacy as a tool to structure aid and assistance and, at the same time, as a tool of foreign policy that legitimizes different kind of state intervention. The project has produced both academic and policy expertise in the field of humanitarian diplomacy and humanitarian negotiations. It has filled the gap between the growing academic interest in humanitarian diplomacy and the need to identify grounded policy and practice guidelines. The outputs, activities and events of the project have facilitated the promotion of advanced training in humanitarian diplomacy; facilitated the sharing of negotiation experiences amongst practitioners; promoted new methods to study humanitarian diplomacy and to advance knowledge on best practices for humanitarian negotiators; and facilitated inter-sectoral exchanges between academics and practitioners.

The project results contribute to a better understanding of how humanitarian diplomacy has evolved over time and how it is practiced nowadays. Grounded and evidence-based knowledge of theories and practices of humanitarian diplomacy can help practitioners and policy makers to understand if, how, and to what extent humanitarian diplomacy is effective in prioritizing the challenge of leaving no one behind, as stipulated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Another major outcome of the project is to show possible misuses (especially by state actors) of humanitarian diplomacy to legitimize foreign policy interests. As a pivotal, comprehensive study of humanitarian diplomacy, the project results address some of the main preoccupations of humanitarian organizations, donors and policy makers, including the gender dimension of humanitarian diplomatic practices, the potentials and limits of frontline negotiations, and the capacity to reach the most vulnerable in situations of crisis and emergency.

This project aims to study the policies, practices and impact of humanitarian diplomacy (HD) as conducted by select state actors and new donors (Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, UAE) and two major international humanitarian actors (the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross). Today we have some knowledge of what constitutes the field of HD (structure, functions, norms), but we don't know when (and under what conditions) particular policies/practices in the larger inventory of HD actually "work," why, and what "work" means, for whom and in what sense. This project builds on three main hypotheses: (1) HD produces a shift in the humanitarian agenda from ad hoc action to an extended politics of soft power (i.e. to the capacity to mobilize a network of influence to establish the presence of a specific humanitarian actor in the international arena and to negotiate access to aid); (2) the identity of the actor (state, organizational, international) and its interests do not simply produce different understandings but rather different practices and, moreover, effects of HD; (3) as a new frontier of international relations and foreign policy, HD broadly redefines modes and priorities of humanitarian efforts and of humanitarian/political negotiations in complex emergencies. In order to test these hypotheses on the ground, the research will address the perspectives of the actors who are most significantly interested in and affected by the policies and practices of HD, namely humanitarian practitioners, diplomats and policy makers. The combination of three integrated work packages and the interdisciplinary approach of the project will produce a corpus of knowledge that will directly inform an international "Humanitarian Diplomacy Exchange and Training Program" based at CMI. This will allow the project to transfer the knowledge gained through original research into policy expertise and network building with the aim of improving practices.