Photo: The team at the IFRC, Geneva. Credits: Annmarie Reid 

Resilient humanitarianism: the League of Red Cross Societies, 1919-1991

Australian Research Council Grant - 2019 to 2024 - DP190101171 ($330,912.00)

This project aims to advance the concept of resilient humanitarianism through a historical investigation of one humanitarian body, the League of Red Cross Societies, from its inception to the end of the Cold War. Global humanitarian crises abound due to ongoing conflict and natural disasters but nation states, bodies such as the United Nations and humanitarian organisations seem incapable of offering lasting solutions to intractable situations. This project uses rarely accessed archives and an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the evolution of humanitarianism, voluntary action and global civil society during the 20th century. This historical analysis can inform humanitarian policy, debates and practice of the present and future.

This project brings together a dynamic interdisciplinary research team that creates the space for innovative international historical research while developing research capabilities in an area that is highly relevant to current policy making. The team includes two historians and one geographer from Flinders University, South Australia and two historians from the University of Hull and University of Stirling in the UK. We are culturally diverse, comprising researchers of five nationalities with fluency in four languages – English, French, Spanish and German.

Chief investigators : Prof. Melanie Oppenheimer (Lead), Prof. Susanne Schech, Dr Romain Fathi. Partners Investigators: Prof Neville Wylie & Dr Rosemary Cresswell.

 
Dr Fathi and Pr. Oppenheimer, in Geneva. Cdts: Annmarie Reid

Dr Fathi and Pr. Oppenheimer, in Geneva. Cdts: Annmarie Reid

Listen to my podcast recorded for the History of International Organizations Network (HION)

Acknowledgement of Country

I acknowledge the Kaurna People as the traditional owners and custodians of the land in which I am privileged to live and work. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples across what is now known as Australia.

I recognise the importance of continuing to educate myself about the ways in which these living cultures have developed over tens of thousands of years, and I express my sincere gratitude for being able to share a small part of this ongoing journey. As a historian, I support the Uluru Statement from the Heart and I remain impressed by its generosity.