Humanitarian Assistance Operations: Time to get on With the Job

Abstract

This brutal scenario was the means by which most Americans first heard of Rwanda. Satellite images of the misery of these forlorn survivors of an ongoing genocide shocked and moved the American people -- and surprised a government which had assumed, in the wake of a bitter experience in Somalia, that "passion fatigue" was the order of the day. The Clinton administration scrambled to mount a humanitarian relief operation that would respond to the expressed moral outrage of many Americans. The main vehicle for providing this aid was the American military. The Rwanda aid mission thus became part of the ongoing debate on the U.S. military's role in providing humanitarian relief in the wake of natural and man-made disasters, which is the topic of this paper. Many observers and potential participants in such operations decried the misuse of the military instrument for such non-military purposes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 11, 1995
Accession Number
ADA441103

Entities

People

  • R. N. Marquardt

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil Affairs
  • Cold War
  • Deployment
  • Disaster Management
  • Disasters
  • Doctrine
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Governments
  • Health Services
  • Humanitarian Assistance
  • Information Operations
  • Military Operations
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Psychological Operations
  • Security
  • Training

Readers

  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • International Relations and Conflict Resolution
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.

Technology Areas

  • Space