Changing international health policy and changing international development goals

The World Health Organisation (WHO) was founded in 1948 with a remit to promote public health around the world. The WHO’s constitution sets out its objective as ‘the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health’ (WHO, 1948). The paper raises broad questions over the aspirations and practice of international health policy in its international political and development context. The paper explores how international health policy has been informed by evolving international development strategies, from the earlier modernisation approaches to the sustainable development approaches of recent decades. The final part considers international health policy today in a world of continuing international inequalities

Between compassion and conservatism: a genealogy of British humanitarian sensibilities

Abstract: The chapter explores continuities in modern British humanitarianism at its birth two hundred years ago and today. Modern British humanitarianism arose out of the contradictions between humanist ideals, expanding social sympathies, and fears of radical political change following the French Revolution. Its development was strongly influenced by middle class evangelical reform circles, exemplified by the abolitionist William Wilberforce. The chapter argues that British humanitarianism today follows Wilberforce’s conservative humanitarian tradition and his anti-progressive views. A final proofed version of this paper was published as a chapter:- Vanessa Pupavac (2010) ‘Between Compassion and Conservatism: A Genealogy of British Humanitarian Sensibilities’, in Didier Fassin and Mariella Pandolfi (eds) States of Emergency: Anthropology of Military and Humanitarian Intervention. New York: Zone Books (distributed by MIT Press), pp. 47-77

Hamlet’s crisis of meaning, mental wellbeing and meaninglessness in the War on Terror

Drawing on Shakespeare, and in particular Hamlet's psychological crisis, this paper examines the relationship between emotions and meaning, a key theme in artistic work, but, it is argued, neglected in social psychology. Hamlet's psychological crisis is caused by the storng competing frameworks of meanings, which confronted individuals emerging from traditional society. Conversely the twenty-first century psychological crisis arguably relates to meaninglessness or the weakening of earlier sources of meaning. Studies exploring the crisis of meaning are applied to the War on Terror and international terrorism

Framing post-conflict societies: an analysis of the international pathologisation of Cambodia and the post-Yugoslav states

The article examines the pathologisation of post-conflict societies through a comparison of the framing of the Cambodian and post-Yugoslav states. The notion of failed states fixes culpability for war on societies in question, rendering the domestic populations dysfunational while casting international rescue interventions as functional. The article suggests that the discourse of pathologisation can be understood not as a means of explaining state crisis so much as legitimising an indefinite international presence and deferring self-government

The politics of emergency and the demise of the developing state: problems for humanitarian advocacy

This article discusses the dilemmas of humanitarian advocacy in the contemporary world. First the article considers the crisis of humanitarianism within the wider crisis of meaning in international politics which encouraged humanitarian advocacy. Humanitarian advocacy in the last fifteen years has drawn attention to how humanitarian crises have been precipitated by state policies and has sought international intervention to protect people. Accordingly humanitarian advocacy has become associated with challenging the national sovereignty of the developing state. However rather than the strong sovereign state lying behind today’s humanitarian crises, the article contends that the weak state is the problem. The article suggests that the existing humanitarian advocacy paradigm risks legitimising further erosion of weak states. Humanitarian advocacy has arguably complimented neoliberal economic policies hollowing out the developing state and abandoning national development. The article concludes that humanitarian advocacy should prioritise reasserting the importance of humanitarian relief without conditionality and how to regain humanitarian access on the basis of consent. A later revised and proofed version of this article was published as follows :- Vanessa Pupavac (2006) ‘The politics of emergency and the demise of the developing state: problems for humanitarian advocacy.’ Development in Practice, Special Issue on Current Issues in International Humanitarianism, Vol. 16, Nos. 3&4, June, 2006, pp. 255-269 (first article in special issue). Article reprinted in Tony Vaux (ed.) Development and Humanitarianism: Some Practical Issues. Bloomfield: Kumarian Press, 2007, pp. 27-49

Hamlet’s crisis of meaning, mental wellbeing and meaninglessness in the War on Terror

Drawing on Shakespeare, and in particular Hamlet's psychological crisis, this paper examines the relationship between emotions and meaning, a key theme in artistic work, but, it is argued, neglected in social psychology. Hamlet's psychological crisis is caused by the storng competing frameworks of meanings, which confronted individuals emerging from traditional society. Conversely the twenty-first century psychological crisis arguably relates to meaninglessness or the weakening of earlier sources of meaning. Studies exploring the crisis of meaning are applied to the War on Terror and international terrorism

Changing international health policy and changing international development goals

The World Health Organisation (WHO) was founded in 1948 with a remit to promote public health around the world. The WHO’s constitution sets out its objective as ‘the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health’ (WHO, 1948). The paper raises broad questions over the aspirations and practice of international health policy in its international political and development context. The paper explores how international health policy has been informed by evolving international development strategies, from the earlier modernisation approaches to the sustainable development approaches of recent decades. The final part considers international health policy today in a world of continuing international inequalities

Pathologizing populations and colonizing minds: internatioinal psychosocial programmes in Kosovo

Through a case study of international responses in Kosovo, this article critically analyses how the international therapeutic model constructs war-affected populations as traumatised and subject to psychosocial dysfunctionalism. The international therapeutic model may be summarised as follows: traumatic experiences cause trauma symptoms producing low self esteem and dysfunctionalism leading to abuse/violence, requiring external intervention to break the cycle of trauma and violence. The first half of the paper contends the international projection of the population as traumatised. The second half of the paper examines psychosocial intervention as a new mode of external therapeutic governance. The paper suggests that concern for war trauma in international policy does not necessarily represent a positive development for war-affected populations. International psychosocial intervention has been criticised as a form of cultural imperialism, that is, the imposition of a Western therapeutic model on other societies, which have their own coping strategies

Human security and the rise of global therapeutic governance

This article discusses the emergence of global therapeutic governance or the influence of social psychology on international development policy. Therapeutic governance links psychosocial well-being and security, and seeks to foster personalities able to cope with risk and insecurity. The article analyses how Western alarm at the destabilising impact of development eroded its support for an industrialisation model of development. The article then examines how the basic needs model is underpinned by social psychological theories and involves an abandonment of national development. Finally the article considers development as therapeutic governance and the implications of abandoning national development for the concept of human security. A final version of this article appeared as follows Vanessa Pupavac ‘Human Security and the Rise of Global Therapeutic Governance.’ Conflict, Security and Development, Vol 5 (2), 2005, pp. 161-181

Psychosocial interventions and the demoralisation of humanitarianism

Summary: This paper critically analyses from a political sociology standpoint the international conceptualization of war-affected populations as traumatized and in need of therapeutic interventions. It argues for the importance of looking beyond the epidemiological literature to understand trauma responses globally. The paper explores how the imperative for international psychosocial programmes lies in developments within donor countries and debates in their humanitarian sectors over the efficacy of traditional aid responses. The aim of the paper is threefold. First, it discusses the emotional norms of donor states, highlighting the psychologising of social issues and the cultural expectations of individual vulnerability. Second it examines the demoralization of humanitarianism in the 1990s and how this facilitated the rise of international psychosocial work and the psychologising of war. Third, it draws attention to the limitations of a mental health model in Croatia, a country which has been receptive to international psychosocial programmes. Finally it concludes that the prevalent trauma approaches may inhibit recovery and argues for the need to re-moralize resilience. Please note this is not a final proofed version.A final proofed version of this paper was published under the following reference: Vanessa Pupavac (2004) ‘Psychosocial Interventions and the Demoralisation of Humanitarianism.’ Journal of Biosocial Science, Vol. 36 pp. 491-504. Special issue on Mental Well-being in Complex Emergencies edited by Astier Almedom at Tufts University