Modernity at Risk: Complex Emergencies, Humanitarianism, Sovereignty

Our book un-maps the modern conception of politics that frames humanitarianism and complex emergencies. We highlight discontinuities and collisions between those modern practices. Un-mapping will proceed by unveiling sovereignty in the heart of those political practices. Bursting through humanitarianism and complex emergencies, sovereignty pulses in controversial, contradictory, nonlinear, entropic ways – associated with conceptions of protection. Humanitarianism and complex emergencies stem from the same modern foundations, but they engender contradictory outcomes, blurring their sovereign traces. Pivotal depictions of humanitarianism and complex emergencies provide momentum for un-mapping modern coordinates of political activity (and imagination). By delving into humanitarianism and complex emergencies, we find Modernity by any other name.