International Humanitarian Military Intervention

This article shows how international humanitarianism and state violence developed a sustained relation of mutual support during the civil war in northern Uganda. This collaboration was anchored in the archipelago of forced displacement camps, which at the peak of the war contained about a million people, and which were only able to exist because of, first, the violence of the Ugandan state in forcing people into them, preventing people from leaving, and repressing political organisation in the camps; and, second, the intervention of international humanitarian aid agencies, which fed, managed, and sustained the camps for over a decade. The consequence was that state violence and international humanitarianism each depended on the other for its own viability.

During international deployment in contexts where military, humanitarian and development missions coexist, the roles of military healthcare professionals (referred to as HCP, these include the following: physicians, nurses, medical technicians, allied health professionals) often overlap and at times conflict. Military HCP may be asked to undertake the work of healers, soldiers, and development workers simultaneously or in succession which can create challenging ethical conflicts that go beyond those commonly dealt with in the medical ethics literature. In these situations, the principles of medical ethics apply but may be prioritized differently by various actors due to varying internal and external influences and perceptions. For example, triage and just resource allocation, treatment protocols and standards of care, informed consent, patient autonomy, and the protection and promotion of human rights may diverge depending on the situation. These issues become all the more pronounce...

During international deployment in contexts where military, humanitarian and development missions coexist, the roles of military healthcare professionals (referred to as HCP, these include the following: physicians, nurses, medical technicians, allied health professionals) often overlap and at times conflict. Military HCP may be asked to undertake the work of healers, soldiers, and development workers simultaneously or in succession which can create challenging ethical conflicts that go beyond those commonly dealt with in the medical ethics literature. In these situations, the principles of medical ethics apply but may be prioritized differently by various actors due to varying internal and external influences and perceptions. For example, triage and just resource allocation, treatment protocols and standards of care, informed consent, patient autonomy, and the protection and promotion of human rights may diverge depending on the situation. These issues become all the more pronounce...