From New Humanitarianism to Total Defence: Conceptualising a New Dimension of Aid Organisations in Ukraine’s War Effort

Abstract

A new wave of organisations, primarily established after February 2022 in response to the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, provide aid to civilians while also contributing to Ukraine’s military defence. This hybrid set of activities challenges the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence, rendering the existing frameworks of humanitarianism and new humanitarianism inadequate to describe their operations. This paper tackles these conceptual shortcomings and the difficulties in finding appropriate terminology to characterise such activities by introducing the alternative framework of total defence. The research focuses on an organisation founded by Ukrainians in Sweden, active in both Sweden and Ukraine, and examines its approach in relation to the frameworks of humanitarianism, new humanitarianism and total defence. The findings indicate that this novel hybrid approach represents a paradigm shift in the discourse between humanitarianism and new humanitarianism, suggesting that the organisation is better characterised as part of a total defence mechanism rather than a conventional humanitarian response.