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Civil–military relations in natural disasters: a case study of the 2010 Pakistan floods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2012

Ajay Madiwale  and
Kudrat Virk
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Abstract

In 2010, Pakistan was struck by devastating floods, the latest in a series of disasters to strike the country in recent years. As it had during the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the Pakistan military played a significant operational and co-ordination role in the humanitarian response that followed. Its role raised important questions about civil–military relations between humanitarian actors and national (as opposed to international) militaries. This article looks at the interaction between the humanitarian community and the Pakistan military in responding to the 2010 floods in order to identify key successes and challenges. It also highlights a number of issues that emerged in the context of Pakistan but that may also be relevant to civil–military relations – particularly between the humanitarian community and the national military of an affected state – in other natural disaster and complex emergency settings.

Type
Humanitarian Principles Put at Test
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 93 , Issue 884: The future of humanitarian action , December 2011 , pp. 1085 - 1105
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2012

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References

1 See Hofmann, Charles-Antoine and Hudson, Laura, ‘Military responses to natural disasters: last resort or inevitable trend?’, in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, No. 44, September 2009Google Scholar, available at: http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=3030 (last visited 12 September 2011); Wilton Park, ‘The use of military assets in the humanitarian response to natural disasters’, Report on Wilton Park Conference 994, 28–30 September 2009, p. 1. See also Wiharta, Sharon, et al. , The Effectiveness of Foreign Military Assets in Natural Disaster Response, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Solna, 2008Google Scholar; Wilton Park, ‘Civil–military co-ordination in complex humanitarian situations’, Report on Wilton Park Conference 895, 28–31 January 2008.

2 By international militaries, we mean militaries operating outside their own national boundaries, rather than internationally mandated military forces, such as United Nations peacekeeping forces.

3 ‘Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets in Disaster Relief’, November 2006, and ‘Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets to Support United Nations Humanitarian Activities in Complex Emergencies’, March 2003, both available at: http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-products-products&productcatid=8 (last visited 28 October 2011).

4 Wilton Park, ‘The use of military assets in the humanitarian response to natural disasters’, above note 3, p. 4.

5 See United Nations Development Programme, ‘Pakistan country profile: human development indicators’, available at: http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/PAK.html (last visited 19 April 2012).

6 OCHA Pakistan, available at: http://www.unocha.org/where-we-work/pakistan (last visited 28 October 2011); Development Initiatives, ‘GHA Report 2011’, p. 31, available at: http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/report/gha-report-2011 (last visited 28 October 2011).

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8 Andrew Wilder, ‘Perceptions of the Pakistan earthquake response’, Humanitarian Agenda 2015: Pakistan Country Study, Feinstein International Center (Tufts University), Medford, MA, 2008, p. 3, available at: http://sites.tufts.edu/feinstein/2008/humanitarian-agenda-2015-perceptions-of-the-pakistan-earthquake-response (last visited 17 May 2012).

9 C.-A. Hofmann and L. Hudson, above note 1.

10 Marion Péchayre, ‘Humanitarian action in Pakistan 2005–2010: challenges, principles, and politics’, Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 2011, pp. 4–5, available at: http://sites.tufts.edu/feinstein/2011/humanitarian-action-in-pakistan-2005-2010 (last visited 17 May 2012); A. Wilder, above note 8, pp. 3–7 and 12–16.

11 M. Péchayre, above note 10, p. 5.

12 Humanitarian Policy Group, ‘A clash of principles? Humanitarian action and the search for stability in Pakistan’, HPG Policy Brief 36, Overseas Development Institute, London, 2009, p. 2, available at: http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=3765&title=conflict-humanitarian-pakistan-stability-taliban (last visited 17 May 2012).

13 John Cosgrave, Riccardo Polastro, and Farwa Zafar, ‘Inter-agency real time evaluation (IA RTE) of the humanitarian response to Pakistan's 2009 displacement crisis: commissioned by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’, Final Report, Version 1.95, DARA, 9 August 2010, pp. 33–34 and 38–39, available at: http://daraint.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/IARTE_PK_displacement_2010_report.pdf (last visited 17 May 2012).

14 The term espace humanitaire was coined by the former Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) President Rony Brauman, who described it as ‘a space of freedom in which we are free to evaluate needs, free to monitor the distribution and use of relief goods, and free to have a dialogue with the people’. Wagner, Johanna Grombach, ‘An IHL/ICRC perspective on humanitarian space’, in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, Issue 32, December 2005, pp. 24–26Google Scholar. J. Cosgrave, R. Polastro, and F. Zafar, above note 13, pp. 38–39; Humanitarian Policy Group, above note 12, p. 1.

15 J. Cosgrave, R. Polastro, and F. Zafar, above note 13, pp. 4 and 39.

16 Except where noted otherwise, the facts and figures in this section of the report are drawn from the following: Riccardo Polastro et al., ‘Inter-agency real time evaluation of the humanitarian response to Pakistan's 2010 flood crisis’, DARA, March 2011, pp. 17–18 and 55, available at: http://daraint.org/2011/03/30/1354/report-inter-agency-real-time-evaluation-of-the-humanitarian-response-to-the-2010-floods-in-pakistan/ (last visited 22 April 2012); Niaz Murtaza et al., ‘Pakistan floods 2010: the DEC real-time evaluation report’, ThinkAhead, March 2011, p. 5, available at http://www.dec.org.uk/node/1776 (last visited 22 April 2012).

17 M. Péchayre, above note 10, p. 9.

18 World Bank, ‘ADB-WB assess Pakistan floods damage at $9.7 billion’, press release no. 2011/134/SAR, available at: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:22733998∼pagePK:64257043∼piPK:437376∼theSitePK:4607,00.html (last visited 17 May 2012).

19 The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is a group of UN agencies, including OCHA, WFP, and UNHCR, tasked with providing strategic-level decision-making during disasters.

20 Nicki Bennett, ‘Civil–military principles in the Pakistan flood response’, in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, Issue 49, February 2011, available at: http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=3167 (last visited 12 September 2011).

21 UK House of Commons International Development Committee, ‘The humanitarian response to the Pakistan floods: government response to the Committee's seventh report of session 2010–12’, 12 July 2011, p. 3, available at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmintdev/1435/1435.pdf (last visited 17 May 2012).

22 OCHA, ‘Pakistan: one year on’, 2011, pp. 23 and 61, available at: http://www.unocha.org/top-stories/all-stories/pakistan-one-year (last visited 22 April 2012).

23 R. Polastro et al., above note 16, p. 35.

24 Ibid., p. 34.

25 Ibid., p. 9.

26 Ibid., p. 38.

27 UK House of Commons International Development Committee, above note 21, p. 2.

28 Ajay Chhibber, ‘Pakistan's flood victims still need support’, in Washington Post, 13 August 2011, available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pakistans-flood-victims-still-need-support/2011/08/02/gIQAWlmxBJ_story.html (last visited 23 April 2012).

29 Azad, Arif and McElhinney, Helen, Ready or Not: Pakistan's Resilience to Disasters One Year on from the Floods’, Oxfam Briefing Paper 150, 26 July 2011, p. 1Google Scholar, available at: http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/ready-or-not-pakistans-resilience-to-disasters-one-year-on-from-the-floods-138689 (last visited 22 April 2012).

30 See R. Polastro et al., above note 16, p. 33.

31 Christopher Stokes, ‘Drowning humanitarian aid’, in Foreign Policy, 27 October 2010, available at: http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/27/drowning_humanitarian_aid (last visited 22 April 2012).

32 The Sphere Project was launched in 1997 to develop a set of minimum standards in core areas of humanitarian response. This resulted in the publication of a handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response, which was last updated in 2011. The standards set out in the Sphere handbook are widely accepted by the humanitarian community.

33 Transport and medical facilities were provided by both Pakistani helicopters and international assets on loan – American Chinook helicopters, British Bailey bridges, and Chinese field hospitals to name a few – which created an ambivalent situation regarding the distinction between international and national military assets, though international markings were removed or covered up.

34 M. Péchayre, above note 10, p. 12.

35 N. Bennett, above note 20.

36 See, for example, R. Polastro et al., above note 16, p. 37.

37 M. Péchayre, above note 10, p. 10.

38 The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum was established in 2003, following the 2002 earthquake in the northern areas of Pakistan. Membership of the forum includes nearly all the major INGOs in Pakistan, including Oxfam, Save the Children, Action Aid, and Islamic Relief. The forum collectively represents the international humanitarian community with the UN and the Pakistan government.

39 Indeed, both also refused their activities to be included in the UN situation updates.

40 ‘Air-bridge’ is a term in logistics to describe the route and the means of delivering material from one place to another using an airlift.

41 UK House of Commons International Development Committee, above note 21, pp. 5–6.

42 See N. Bennett, above note 20.

43 Pakistan Civil–Military Coordination Working Group meeting, 30 September 2010, available at: http://bit.ly/Jzs2qA (last visited 22 May 2012).

44 Ibid.

45 Humanitarian Policy Group, above note 12, p. 7.

46 Paul Harvey, ‘Towards good humanitarian government: the role of the affected state in disaster response’, HPG Policy Brief No. 37, Overseas Development Institute, London, 2009, available at: http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=4196&title=good-humanitarian-government-affected-state-disaster-response (last visited 17 May 2012).

47 Shah, Zahir, ‘Military–humanitarian relations in Pakistan’, in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, Issue 49, February 2011Google Scholar, available at: http://www.odihpn.org/humanitarian-exchange-magazine/issue-49/militaryhumanitarian-relations-in-pakistan (last visited 23 April 2012).

48 See N. Bennett, above note 20.