Leading in Humanitarian Crises – War, Disasters, and Disease
Leading in humanitarian crisis is an essential and inevitable responsibility for leaders in today’s world. Whether in government, business, civil society or international organizations, the leaders of today and tomorrow will have a duty to develop policies, technologies, and institutions to limit the worst effects of climate crisis, biodiversity loss, war, and epidemics. The purpose of this course is to prepare students to be intellectually ready for a humanitarian leadership role when crisis strikes their organization and the people around it.
The course focuses on policy and strategy. It compares Chinese and Western approaches to humanitarian aid and takes a geopolitical approach to humanitarian need which recognizes that climate change, warfare and disease can each create an “Earth emergency” that demands a geopolitical response by humanitarians, governments and businesses. The course gives students an overarching knowledge of the scale and trends of climate-related disasters, biodiversity loss, and warfare in the world today. It then introduces them to the main legal, policy and operational frameworks in humanitarian global governance that seek to regulate and manage them.
Each session combines a lecture with problem-solving in small groups on a particular challenge of humanitarian policy or strategy. At all times, students are invited to challenge prevailing western orthodoxy in humanitarian aid with new generation thinking from around the world, and to refl ect on their own moral commitments and operational ethics as humanitarian leaders.