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Rationale for Military Involvement in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2019

Deon V. Canyon Open the ORCID record for Deon V. Canyon [Opens in a new window] ,
Benjamin J. Ryan  and
Frederick M. Burkle Jr Open the ORCID record for Frederick M. Burkle Jr [Opens in a new window]
Deon V. Canyon*
Affiliation:
Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, HawaiiUSA
Benjamin J. Ryan
Affiliation:
Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, HawaiiUSA
Frederick M. Burkle Jr
Affiliation:
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, MassachusettsUSA; Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DCUSA
*
Correspondence: Deon V. Canyon, PhD, DBA, MPH, FACTM Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies 2058 Maluhia Rd Honolulu, Hawaii96815-1949USA E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Good relations and trust are the foundation of soft power diplomacy and are essential for the accomplishment of domestic interventions and any bilateral or multilateral endeavor. Military use for assistance and relief is not a novel concept, but it has increased since the early 1990s with many governments choosing to provide greater numbers of forces and assets to assist domestically and internationally. The increase is due to the growing lack of capacity in global humanitarian networks and increasingly inadequate resources available to undertake United Nations humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) missions. In response, the military has been more proactive in pursuing the improvement of military-to-military and military-to-civilian integration. This trend reflects a move towards more advanced and comprehensive approaches to security cooperation and requires increased support from the civilian humanitarian sector to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Military assistance is progressing beyond traditional methods to place a higher value on issues relating to civil cooperation, restoring public health infrastructure, protection, and human rights, all of which are ensuring a permanent diplomatic role for this soft power approach.

Keywords

conflictdisastersHADRmilitarypoliciessecurity
Type
Brief Report
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 92 - 97
Copyright
© World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2019

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