ABSTRACT
Introduction
Current U.S. hospital ships—USNS Mercy and Comfort—are old, slow, cumbersome, and indefensible, and due for retirement. As new challenges and new threats emerge in the 21st ...century, the U.S. Navy should field new afloat medical platforms to potentially deal with both mass casualty scenarios and humanitarian disaster relief in a rapid and tactical manner. New hospital ships should be able to defend themselves with more modern weapons and to be interconnected with encrypted communications. They must be fast, nimble, tactical, defensible, and forward deployed in the risky global commons of the 21st century.
Materials and Methods
Systematic review of the literature on hospital ships, U.S. Navy policy, the Geneva Conventions, and current global threat conditions.
Results
Hospital ships provide medical support for U.S. forces in conflict and promote goodwill and a positive image of the U.S. abroad. Current hospital ships do not fit the operational paradigm of the current needs for forward deployed and rapidly deliverable operational medicine. There is a need for a new and more capable platform to deliver operational health care in the forward deployed setting.
Conclusions
Multiple high-speed medical response vessels—whether reconfigured from an existing ship, or an entirely new platform developed for more robust medical delivery—need to be urgently fielded for future combat operations, humanitarian missions, and participation in cooperative security engagements. These medical platforms need to be able to defend themselves and be tactically interconnected with the Fleet and Fleet Forces.
Ció porta le discipline del progetto ad interrogarsi sullequilibrio tra tempo di realizzazione, tempo di vita in esercizio e livelli di prestazione dei manufatti, tema che rimanda sia alle ...implicazioni teoriche e culturali del dibattito sulla costruzione reversibile e temporanea (da Le Corbusier, Gropius, Prouve, Fuller, C. e R. Eames, Wachsmann, fino ai recenti contributi di Horden e Ban), sia a quello sulla nozione di appropriatezza delle tecnologie (Schumacher, Ceragioli, Doshi, Baker). Con lo scopo di rafforzare il partenariato tra le Agenzie delle Nazioni Unite, le Organizzazioni internazionali e le ONG anche nel settore dellemergenza abitativa, fin dal 2006 l'ONU ha implementata il Cluster "Shelter", nell'ambito della strategia "Cluster approach". Design, Build, Living Nella prospettiva di utilizzare queste esperienze come possibili riferimenti da trasferire anche in altri contesti, lo studio ha sviluppato un procedimento per analizzare e caratterizzare gli interventi di Architettura Umanitaria di emergenza, proponendosi in particolare di mappare il livello di innovazione che le soluzioni adottate fanno registrare. Gli indicatori che specificano il parametro sono: o la quota di materiali locali sul totale dei materiali utilizzati per la realizzazione dell'edificio; o l'adozione di soluzioni progettuali in relazione ai materiali e ai contesti locali. Gli indicatori che specificano il parametro sono: o la quota di utilizzo di materiali biodegradabili/riusabili/ riciclabili sul totale dei materiali utilizzati; o il livello di reversibilita dei sistemi di assemblaggio dei componenti delledificio. Gli ambiti considerati sono quello relativo alla progettazione (Design), quello attinente i processi di produzione fisica dei manufatti (Build) e quello che riguarda le condizioni offerte agli abitanti (Living) (Tab. 1).
The recent increase in Venezuelan migrants and refugees to Brazil has prompted a humanitarian response coordinated by multiple government agencies and inter/national organisations. This coordination ...effort sits under the umbrella of the Operation Welcome task force, in which the military is heavily involved. Situated in the northern state of Roraima, bordering Venezuela, this article explores one particular site of humanitarian care: a set of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities located in the capital city of Boa Vista. Here, I investigate the militaristic design and processes of the shower block, which is available to Venezuelan refugees and migrants who are living without adequate shelter. In doing so, this paper argues that the normalisation of militarism in humanitarian intervention (re)produces exclusion and precarity for those accessing spaces of care. By understanding the water infrastructure of the site as an infrastructure of containment, this research shines light on the everyday, often invisiblised implications of migration governance that occur at the micro-scale. In particular, it highlights the conditions of slow and symbolic violence that are embedded within the military-humanitarian response.
Focusing on the design and production of the IKEA Foundation “Better Shelter” and on its use in a camp on the island of Lesvos, Greece, this article explores the role of logistical calculative ...rationales in the provision of emergency shelters to refugees. It argues that an engagement with the critical geographies of logistics contributes to the study of such “humanitarian goods” in two main ways. First, it foregrounds the technologies that allow emergency shelter products to circulate across production sites and disaster and border zones, and their connections to broader infrastructures and commercial networks in what recent literature has called “supply‐chain humanitarianism”. Second, a logistical lens highlights the disruptions that characterise the production and usage of emergency shelter products. The analysis adds to a body of work that exposes humanitarian technology and design as sites of friction, deeply embedded in global processes of bordering and accumulation.
Refugee camps are among the most prevalent institutional responses to global displacement. Despite a quasi consensus among scholars, activists, and humanitarians that camps are undesirable, and ...should only ever be temporary, little work has charted the political project and practices of camp abolition that challenge their spatial unfreedom. Rather than life‐supporting spatial technologies of care that unwittingly signal political failures of inclusion, camps form part of a calculated system of “carceral humanitarianism”. This article draws on experiences from Kenya where aid interventions have shaped politics, social dynamics and economic life since the 1990s. Kakuma camp and Kalobeyei settlement serve as empirical windows to explore the limits of institutional decampment and reform policies, while demonstrating that more radical, abolitionist struggles are enacted through everyday mobilisation and acts of fugitivity among refugees themselves. Advancing critical studies of humanitarianism and forced migration, this article contends that only abolishing camps and their carceral logics helps to build more viable, safe, and humane futures for people on the move.
Muhtasari
Kambi za wakimbizi ni moja ya njia za kitaasisi zilizozoeleka kukabiliana na suala la uhamiaji wa kulazimishwa wa kimataifa. Ingawaje kuna muafaka baina ya wanazuoni, wanaharakati, na watetezi wa masuala ya kibinadamu kwamba kambi hazifai, na ziwepo kwa muda mfupi tu, michango michache ya kitaaluma imefafanua mradi wa kisiasa na vitendo vya ukomeshaji kambi ambavyo vinakabili ukosefu wa uhuru. Badala ya kuwa mahali pa kuokoa na kujali maisha—penye mapungufu yaliyosababishwa na sera jumuishi zilizoshindwa—kambi ni sehemu ya mfumo wa makusudi wa misaada ya kibinadamu yenye mrengo wa kiudhibiti. Makala hii inatumia mafunzo kutoka Kenya ambapo misaada imeathiri siasa, mienendo ya jamii na maisha ya kiuchumi tangu 1990. Kambi ya Kakuma na makazi ya Kalobeyei yanatumika kama madirisha halisia kuchunguza mkomo wa kitaasisi katika sera za uondoaji kambi na za kimageuzi, ilihali ninaonyesha kwamba mapambano makali ya ukomeshaji wa kambi yanafanywa kila siku kupitia uhamasishaji na vitendo vya kikimbizi kati ya wakimbizi wenyewe. Katika kuendeleza tafakuri ya kihakiki katika masomo ya mfumo wa kibinadamu na uhamiaji wa kulazimishwa, chapisho hili linadai kwamba njia pekee ya kujenga hatima nzuri, salama na ya kibinadamu kwa watu wanaotoka sehemu moja kwenda nyingine, ni kwa kukomesha kambi na mantiki yake ya kiudhibiti.
This article explores how informal, citizen-led solidarity with migrants is practised digitally and discusses how we can conceptualise such acts. The study draws on digital observations, ...semi-structured interviews and one field visit. Citizen humanitarians, who are informants in this study, supported migrants from Afghanistan who had been rejected asylum in Norway. Support included facilitating unauthorised migration, transit, residency within the Schengen area, financial help, and caregiving. By analysing these acts, the article discusses scholarly debates on citizenship regarding who enjoys the right to stay and access social rights in Europe and humanitarian ideals of 'saving lives' of migrants threatened by deportation. The article show that citizen humanitarians use digital acts to carry out borderwork that were depended on and enabled by weak social ties. These practices fostered communities between citizen humanitarians and enabled them to claim rights for themselves and others. Based on the analysis, I develop the term 'digital citizen humanitarianism', which allows us to be more precise about different forms of citizen humanitarianism facilitated by the digital.
Humanitarian wars are a primary means of globally affirming a specific model of humanity, built according to the cultural, moral, and economic standards of Western democracies. How are forms of ...humanity produced in the context of humanitarian war in Afghanistan? How are notions of freedom mobilized? How does the idea of a prospective humanity relate to the use of military force? In an attempt to reflect on the different configurations of freedom and humanity that emerged in the context of recent Afghanistan conflicts and international interventions, this article addresses the perspective of two key figures: the Taliban and the humanitarian soldier. Building on narratives such as poetry, interviews, and conversations conducted during fieldwork, this angle allows us to observe the complexity of the Afghan humanitarian theatre in a way that goes beyond mere assessments of political and economic interests, revealing a fragment of global contemporaneity that is crucial for understanding how processes of producing humanity combine with war and humanitarian efforts.
It is a generally accepted fact that the digital transition in the humanities has already succeeded. The author emphasized the digital technologies impact on the research in humanities. The ways and ...methods of gaining knowledge have changed due to digital transformation at the current stage of society development. It is indisputable that obtaining and processing information have accelerated and it is definitely a positive factor. However, the issues of the digital humanitarianism essence remain debatable according to the author’s research. There is still no accepted definition of the term. The author also emphasized that digital humanitarianism is also an object of research, not only a combination of digital tools for gaining knowledge. The number of software products serving the educational process will increase in the course of time. In addition to increasing in the number of digital products that will be used in humanities, the quality of the products will also improve and they will increasingly adapt to the needs of the educational process. The author pointed the need to introduce Digital Humanity courses for the compulsory study of humanitarian students since obtaining digital skills in humanities will contribute to the graduates’ career growth. Concluding the study, the author emphasized that despite the importance of information that will be obtained using modern digital tools, the value of humanitarian gained knowledge expertise will not decrease.
Abstract Immediately after Russia commenced aggression against Ukraine, the Polish Psychiatric Association publicly called for humanitarian support for Ukraine and initiated meetings with ...representatives of Psychiatric Societies operating in Ukraine in order to identify current needs in the war-stricken areas and coordinate aid. The PPA allocated its financial resources to humanitarian aid and, through the EPA, appealed for condemnation of military operations as well as support for Ukraine by individual NPAs. According to the UHNR data over 4 million displaced people, refugees, came to Poland so far and some of them benefited from such help. The Polish Psychiatric Association supports the initiatives of non-governmental organizations supporting refugees and monitors and responds to the needs reported by the Ukrainian side on an ongoing basis. At present, the PPA activities focus on the following priorities: 1. Need-adapted-help: Provision of customized aid - not only medications but also power generators, technical equipment. And so, the PPA shipped to Ukraine some basic equipment, sleeping mats, bedding, mattresses, backpacks, cleaning products, personal hygiene products, as well as tools for renovation and construction. 2. Awareness - highlighting the consequences of Russia’s aggression on people with mental disorders in Ukraine and its impact on the entire population (PTSD, grief ). Inviting and lobbying for dissemination of personal reports of Ukrainian health care workers and patients at international conventions, forums, events 3. Empowerment of personnel - strengthening competences required in provision of assistance in war-related disorders, training, projects of activities both across Poland and Ukraine 4. Supporting and responding to the needs reported by local psychiatric assistance centers facilitating and strengthening the competence of personnel in helping refugees Disclosure of Interest None Declared
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