HUMANE · Humanitarian Aid, Politics and Religion: A Transnational History of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association from the 1920s to the present day

Humanitarian Aid, Politics and Religion: A Transnational History of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association from the 1920s to the present day

While the notion of humanitarianism has exploded in contemporary discourse and practice since the 1990s, HUMANE looks at the prolegomena of this phenomenon. At the crossroads of religious history, migration and international relations, this project focuses on faith-based humanitarian aid, combining local dynamics in the Middle East and transnational perspectives. More specifically, it investigates Catholic aid networks for the populations of the Middle East in interaction with locally-established structures (1920-1990), and in particular, a dual American-Vatican structure: the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) and its executive agency on the ground, the Pontifical Mission for Palestine (PMP). The study includes emergency relief, educational work and longer-term assistance, and examines how advocacy and informal diplomacy are intertwined. The analysis is based on archival collections and field surveys in Lebanon, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, as well as in Rome and the United States. This research provides an opportunity for a critical re-reading of the origins of humanitarianism, how it functions and has developed over time, starting with the Middle East. In the context of new conflicts in the Middle East and their repercussions on the aid sector, with humanitarian actors on the front line and sometimes controversial debates about their involvement, this re-reading is both necessary and instructive. With regard to the state of the art, the research is situated within a perspective of redefining humanitarian action. In fact, current definitions of humanitarian action are based on a historiography that has long focused on Europe, the battlefields and the aftermath of war, and still does not take sufficient account of work carried out in its two main areas of action, Africa and the Middle East. Analysis struggle to establish the links between the major international organisations and their field of operation, with the risk of producing a disconnected and overhanging vision of humanitarian action, while neglecting the actors' diversity. The archives consulted reveal a more complex reality: definitions of humanitarianism appear porous; the terms used are often interchangeable; practices are deeply intertwined in various forms of charity, including charity, social action, emergency relief and development. The objectives are to produce knowledge that is contextualised and rooted in the field, define practices rather than categories, bring to the fore actors who have hitherto had little visibility in historiography, and question the norms of governance.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union