Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 03 - Humanitarianism and the global Cold War, 1945–1991
Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 03 - Humanitarianism and the global Cold War, 1945–1991 - contributed by Margot Tudor. From the introduction During the twentieth century, international humanitarian organisations were shaped by the geopolitical pressures and demands of the global Cold War, shifting to adapt to evolving conflicts and disasters whilst navigating complex ideological alignments. A term popularised by historian Orne Arne Westad, the ‘global Cold War’ refers to the expansive, world-spanning implications of the Cold War ( Westad, 2005 ). As an approach, it sheds light on and encourages a more expansive approach to the ways in which existing domestic or regional tensions and hierarchies were exacerbated by the superpower conflict and spanned the globe ( Krepp et al., 2020 ). It also enables historians to trace and ide