Public talk by Assistant Professor Charlotte Dany, Goethe University, International Relations and World Order

The Politics of Rejecting Humanitarian Aid: Lessons from Myanmar, Japan, India, and the United States

Surprisingly many states refuse to accept humanitarian aid offers after severe natural disasters. The presentation seeks to explain this puzzling state behavior. When Myanmar rejected humanitarian aid for several months after it suffered massively from the aftermath of the devastating cyclone Nargis in 2008, the international community was upset. It seemed that the military regime sought to seal itself off from what they perceived as hostile international interferences, to the detriment of their vulnerable population. But why do democracies reject humanitarian aid? The presentation focuses on Japan’s refusal to accept aid offers after the Kobe earthquake in 1995, India’s hesitation to accept aid after the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, and the United States rejection of humanitarian aid after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It shows that receiving humanitarian aid is as much political as giving it.

This lecture is part of the Wednesday Evening Lecture Series within the IZO’s research project “Protecting the Weak. Entangled Processes of Framing, Institutionalization and Mobilization in East Asia” funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.