| Summary/Abstract |
This article seeks to place new/neo humanitarianism in a wider context of post-Cold War international relations and argues that its emergence corresponds to an important shift in the meaning of the political in contemporary international relations. It describes the shift in terms of the contrast between two logics of politics: the conventional logic of distinction, whereby political processes take place between territorially separated sovereign entities, and the emerging logic of translucency. The latter logic, in which new values (and risks) are generated by the actor’s ability and will to extend beyond its material and ideational boundaries, has been adopted by many global actors, including humanitarian ones. The article argues that new humanitarianism, which seeks linkage to activities that were once off limits to traditional humanitarianism, represents another example of the practical and ideational adaptation on the part of a traditional movement to a new political landscape.
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