Humanitarian NGOs and Global Governance: One, No One and One Hundred Thousand Humanitarian NGOs

Abstract

To understand the role that NGOs’ representation of Syrian displacement plays in global governance before getting into the visual analysis it is important reflect upon the aspirations of emergency organizations. How do relief agencies intend, perceive and present their role to the public? Are they interested in participating or influencing global governance? Do they consider their role as promoters of universal values or technical agents performing a specific task? Answering these questions is important to unpack their distinctiveness and the different ways in which different NGOs conceive and perform their mission in the international arena. In this sense, it is extremely interesting to look at how relief organizations accommodate their humanitarian role and the humanitarian principles within contexts that are inescapably highly political (e.g., situations of violence, displacement, political contestation or belligerent occupation). Not only do NGOs work within a complex web of political interests, international relations and systems of power, but, for better or worse, their humanitarian and advocacy actions have practical political implications. The investigation of how different organizations negotiate their relationship with politics allows us to better understand where each positions itself within the heated debate around the interrelations of humanitarianism and politics discussed in the first chapter.