Topic 2: The global context of humanitarian relief
Historical background
The Red Cross was established in 1863 by Henri Dumant, following his experiences of the battle of Solferino. Many of the traditional church and welfare groups (such as the Salvation Army) also have their origins in the nineteenth century, however it was the twentieth century, and particularly the two world wars, and intervening and subsequent conflicts, which saw the genesis of many of the world’s largest and best-known Non Government Organisations (NGOs). Some examples are Save the Children Fund, CARE, OXFAM and World Vision. Other NGOs, such as Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), grew out of responses or reactions to later conflicts. MSF was established by Bernard Kouchner and others, out of frustration at the constraints facing the International Committee of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) during the Nigerian Civil War (Biafra) in the late 1960s.
Post World War II saw a combination of decolonisation, and rapid economic growth, initially particularly in the advanced economies of Western Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia, and later on in a range of other countries across continents. These post-war years heralded the era of the Cold War played out between the US and the USSR, and their respective allies. Whilst the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Warsaw Pact military forces were deployed against each other, they never actually clashed. Instead, conflict between the two ideologically opposed entities was mainly played out in wars between proxy states (for example the Korean and Vietnam wars; but also clashes between Ethiopia and Somalia; Angola and South Africa).
There were of course other civil wars or international clashes, conducted out outside of this Cold War backdrop, over this period from 1945-1990. These included the Nigerian civil war; various Indian and Pakistani clashes, the last of these leading to the establishment of Bangladesh in 1971; various wars between Israel and some of her neighbours (1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982); the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s; and civil war in Southern Sudan (1955-73 and 1983-2005).