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The ‘Humanitarian Frontline’, Development and Relief, and Religion: what context, which threats and which opportunities?

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  • Bruno De Cordier

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of a humanitarian frontline in several operational contexts. Over the past 15 years, and since 2001 in particular, the international aid sector has been confronted by a climate of polarisation. With the traditional aid and donor landscape dominated by Western or Western-aligned parties who are sometimes involved in armed conflict too, aid organisations face the impact of the supposed or real instrumentalisation of development and relief in a wider security and geopolitical control agenda. At the same time Western or Western-associated secular development models that are often promoted by traditional aid have either encountered their limits or failed in several parts of the global periphery. The expanded space for religion resulting from globalisation and the social changes that it causes have also expanded the space for faith-based development and relief actors, especially in operational situations that have a large cultural and ideological dimension. The paper focuses on the Islamic world and Islamic faith-based aid, but several factors and trends discussed in it bear relevance for Christian faith-based aid and majority Christian parts of the global periphery as well.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno De Cordier, 2009. "The ‘Humanitarian Frontline’, Development and Relief, and Religion: what context, which threats and which opportunities?," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 663-684.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:30:y:2009:i:4:p:663-684
    DOI: 10.1080/01436590902867086
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    Cited by:

    1. Matthew Clarke & Vicki-Anne Ware, 2015. "Understanding faith-based organizations: How FBOs are contrasted with NGOs in international development literature," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 15(1), pages 37-48, January.
    2. Michael Jennings & Matthew Clarke & Simon Feeny & Gill Westhorp & Cara Donohue, 2021. "A Potent Fuel? Faith Identity and Development Impact in World Vision Community Programming," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 70-85, January.
    3. Smith, Jonathan D., 2017. "Positioning Missionaries in Development Studies, Policy, and Practice," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 63-76.
    4. Barbara Bompani, 2019. "Religion and development: Tracing the trajectories of an evolving sub-discipline," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 19(3), pages 171-185, July.
    5. Andrew McGregor, 2010. "Geographies of Religion and Development: Rebuilding Sacred Spaces in Aceh, Indonesia, after the Tsunami," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(3), pages 729-746, March.

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