Humanitarian Action and Sovereignty in Conflict-Affected Countries

Throughout the Syrian civil war, the Syrian government directly targeted aid workers and created bureaucratic and administrative obstacles in humanitarian action. This violence presents a dilemma for aid organizations, as they strive to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to those in need without inadvertently supporting oppressive regimes. In contrast, in Colombia, where 8 million people are displaced by conflict, humanitarian access is comparatively less restricted than in many other conflict-ridden countries. This variation in states’ responses raises the question: What explains the differing degrees of cooperation or conflict that host states demonstrate toward international humanitarian action?This research addresses this question. It develops a typology of responses that states adopt toward international humanitarian assistance in non-international armed conflicts. Then, it identifies the explanatory conditions that are expected to influence states’ behaviour towards international humanitarian actors. Lastly, it explores the interactions of explanatory conditions that determine a state’s specific response to international humanitarian assistance in non-international armed conflicts.It aims to conceptualize the diverse responses of states to international humanitarian assistance in non-international armed conflicts. This research will be the first study to develop a typology of state responses towards international humanitarian assistance and offer a configurational analysis explaining the variances in these responses through a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 27 countries currently experiencing non-international armed conflicts. The findings of this research will deepen our understanding of the conditions influencing state behaviour toward international humanitarian assistance, providing substantive evidence for the global community, including the United Nations Security Council.