1st Edition
An Introduction to Humanitarian Action
PART 1 Introduction
1 Humanitarian action in a changing world
Katrin Radtke and Kristina Roepstorff
Zoom in: Interactions between local and international response
Janaka Jayawickrama
2 Decolonising humanitarian action
Kristina Roepstorff and Sulagna Maitra
PART 2 Humanitarian response
3 Humanitarian crises
Imri Schattner-Ornan
4 Actors and institutions
Oheneba A Boateng
Zoom in: Communities as first responders
Janaka Jayawickrama
5 Rules and norms of humanitarian action
Ghassan Elkahlout
6 Modalities and sectors
Katrin Radtke
Zoom in: Humanitarianism across the globe
Janaka Jayawickrama
7 Humanitarian management
Christof Ruhmich and Dennis Dijkzeul
Zoom in: Different models of humanitarian action
Janaka Jayawickrama
PART 3 Trends and challenges
8 Humanitarian access
Nazanin Zadeh-Cummings, Eugène Bakama Bope, and Rob Grace
9 Diversity and inclusion in humanitarian action
Christina Wanjohi and Carolin Funke
10 Nexus thinking: linking humanitarian action with development, peace, and beyond
Rodrigo Mena
11 Humanitarian innovation: past, present, and future of a movement for change
Tonia Thomas, Cecilie Hestbaek, and Ben Ramalingam
12 Anticipatory humanitarian action
Karen Dall and Sören Schneider
Biography
Katrin Radtke is a senior research associate and lecturer at the Institute for Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. She is Academic Director of the academy for humanitarian action (aha) and Academic Coordinator of the Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA) Joint Master’s Programme in Bochum. She obtained her doctorate in political science from the Humboldt University Berlin and holds an MA in political sciences from the New School University New York. Her research focuses on disaster risk assessment and localisation of humanitarian action. Before joining the Ruhr University Bochum she spent several years working for the NGO Welthungerhilfe in the field of humanitarian action.
Kristina Roepstorff is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg and Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). She has been teaching on the European NOHA Master Programme in International Humanitarian Action since 2008 and as an associate faculty member at the School of Humanitarian Studies, Royal Roads University, Canada, since 2015. Kristina obtained her Habilitation in political science from the University of Magdeburg (2023) and her doctorate in political science from Bremen University (2009). With her research on humanitarian action, peacebuilding, and forced migration, she seeks to bridge academic research and teaching with policy and practice.
