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America and Trump in the Asia Pacific
Ketan Patel
and
Christian Hansmeyer

Introduction The United States under Donald Trump has been charting a radically new course in Asia, a region that has long relied on America for stability and maintaining the balance of power. In the first half of his presidential term of 2017–21, the forty-fifth president reversed or sought to reverse many of the long-standing policies and initiatives pursued by Barack Obama and his predecessors, with potential long-term implications. A multilateral and multifaceted engagement strategy in the region is being replaced by a transactional approach to security

in The United States in the Indo-Pacific
Insight from Northeast Nigeria
Chikezirim C. Nwoke
,
Jennifer Becker
,
Sofiya Popovych
,
Mathew Gabriel
, and
Logan Cochrane

Introduction The international community contributed nearly US$31 billion to humanitarian assistance in 2020, a figure that has steadily risen over the last half decade ( DI, 2021 ). Within bilateral and multilateral funding circles, there has been a strong and growing emphasis on the importance of understanding and responding to gender inequalities in emergency settings. For instance, recognising that conflicts and disasters affect people across various genders, ages and backgrounds differently, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs
Nazanin Zadeh-Cummings
and
Lauren Harris

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) has been a recipient of international humanitarian aid from international organisations (IOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) since 1995. In recent years, multilateral and unilateral sanctions in response to the DPRK’s nuclear programme have created a new layer of difficulty for humanitarians looking to engage with the authoritarian state. This paper explores how sanctions are affecting humanitarian work in practice, utilising interviews with practitioners. The research first surveys documentation, particularly from IOs, to establish how humanitarians understand contemporary need inside the country. Next, this paper examines the impacts of sanctions on aid efforts, with a particular focus on multilateral United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions and unilateral American measures. Unpacking humanitarian challenges and potential ways to navigate the sanctions regime provides a foundation for academics and humanitarian practitioners to better understand both the DPRK and possible avenues for principled, effective aid.

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs
An Interview with Celso Amorim, Former Brazilian Foreign Minister
Juliano Fiori

Brazil to a position of protagonism in multilateral negotiations. He is convinced that the country will fulfil its potential as a major global power that can influence other states with a democratic and egalitarian vision. But he also recognises challenges ahead. A framed photo of Amorim and Lula perched on the top shelf of an eclectic bookcase, both men smiling widely. The following day, Amorim would travel to the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, where he would visit Lula in prison. And he would receive news of a declaration by the UN

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs
Editor’s Introduction
Juliano Fiori

once authored, not because of his own idiosyncratic way of doing politics but because of the strategic realignment that his presidency represents. According to Trump, his administration’s security strategy is guided by ‘principled realism’. The apparent incoherence of his foreign policy is as indicative of what this entails as his specific interactions with other governments. With every diplomatic encounter imagined as a stand-alone opportunity to strike a winning ‘deal’, the norms-based, multilateral system of global governance becomes

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs
Open Access (free)
Digital Work and Fragile Livelihoods of Women Refugees in the Middle East and North Africa
Dina Mansour-Ille
and
Demi Starks

pandemic. This is particularly true for any future multilateral initiatives like the Jordan Compact, which failed to dedicate specific and targeted policies aimed at helping women to overcome gendered barriers to work. For example, policies promoting the development of safe public transportation infrastructure that would provide refugee women more freedom of movement, facilitating the start-up of online businesses through financial support, and providing women with specialised

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs
José Luís Fiori

exercise of its power, through force and the active division and dispersion of its competitors, boycotting every kind of multilateral or regional agreement or bloc, from the European Union to UNASUR, from NAFTA to the BRICS. Can this new American strategy be reversed? It is difficult to tell, but it is important to understand that it didn’t come from nowhere, nor is it the exclusive work of President Trump. The polarisation of American society and the internal divisions within the American establishment will likely increase in the coming years, but it

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs
Open Access (free)
Four Decisive Challenges Confronting Humanitarian Innovation
Gerard Finnigan
and
Otto Farkas

across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ( Koplitz et al. , 2016 ). The excess all-cause mortality due to short-term exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) polluting the air was estimated at 11,880 deaths (95 per cent CI, 6,153–17,270) ( Crippa et al. , 2016 ). Local NGOs and multilateral agencies based in Indonesia responding to people suffering the choking haze had little knowledge, understanding or guidance of how to reduce the impact for the community in need. The second

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs
A Focus on Community Engagement
Frédéric Le Marcis
,
Luisa Enria
,
Sharon Abramowitz
,
Almudena-Mari Saez
, and
Sylvain Landry B. Faye

Introduction During the 2014 West African Ebola epidemic, an estimated US$ 10 billion was spent to contain the disease in the region and globally. The response brought together multilateral agencies, bilateral partnerships, private enterprises and foundations, local governments and communities. Social mobilisation efforts were pivotal components of the response architecture ( Gillespie et al. , 2016 ; Laverack and Manoncourt, 2015 ; Oxfam International, 2015

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs
Open Access (free)
The Politics of Information and Analysis in Food Security Crises
Daniel Maxwell
and
Peter Hailey

’ and populist governance ( Winston and Winston, 2020 ) and by the deterioration of the multilateral institutions on which famine prevention and humanitarian response has been based ( Hopgood, 2019 ). Famine has always had political consequences. In perhaps the most infamous contemporary case, the famine in Ethiopia in 1984–85 was deliberately kept out of view by the governing regime because it coincided with the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs