From October 2004 through May 2005, the Social Science Research Council held a seminar series, “The Transformations of Humanitarian Action,” which brought together leading analysts on the topic.

These discussions proved enormously fruitful for scholars and practitioners alike and participants and observers encouraged the project to share their findings more widely. As a result, the Social Science Research Council in conjunction with the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies hosted two conferences in 2006 to further the aims of the project. The ultimate products of this initiative were an edited volume and policy prescriptions crafted under the direction of Michael Barnett (Harold Stassen Professor, University of Minnesota) and Thomas G. Weiss (Presidential Professor, City University of New York, Graduate Center, and Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute).

The first conference was held January 9, 2006 at the Ralph Bunche Institute. Please click here to view the program.

The second conference was May 23-24, 2006 at the Social Science Research Council.

The edited volume, Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics, will be published by Cornell University Press in 2008. Please click here to view the table of contents.

For background information on the project, click here.