Anmerkungen:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments March 17, 2011 erstellt
Beschreibung:
In the past ten years, humanitarian assistance – that is, assistance “designed to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain and protect human dignity during and in the aftermath of emergencies” – has fast developed from small occasional contributions into a notable instrument of Indian “soft power” (Nye 2004) within the framework of the country's foreign policy. Despite this trend, India's motives for giving humanitarian assistance, its geographic and thematic priorities and its internal decision processes remain largely unknown. In an attempt to close this research gap, the present paper analyzes India's humanitarian aid as part of its foreign policy, asking why India gives humanitarian assistance and how internal norms and interests shape the country's decisions regarding humanitarian assistance. Following the introduction, Chapter 2 looks at the Indian conception of humanitarian assistance in terms of definition, motives and principles of disaster relief. Chapter 3 analyzes India's internal humanitarian bureaucracy, decision making processes and the policy implications of this organizational setup on the way India provides assistance. The next two sections focus on the implementation of humanitarian assistance, analyzing India's aid practice bilaterally (chapter 4), through multilateral organizations and in cooperation with other countries (chapter 5). Chapter 6 provides a conclusion about the role of humanitarian assistance in India's foreign policy by synthetizing India's normative and interest-based motives with its aid practice. Chapter 7 proposes a path towards increased cooperation between the Indian government, multilateral humanitarian organizations and established donors