Displacement Beyond Conflict: Challenges for the 21st Century

While previous work on the problem of displacement of populations around the globe has focused on displacements resulting from international conflicts and civil wars, this work by McDowell (international politics, City U. London, UK) and Morrell (research director, National Centre for Social Research, UK) aims to raise awareness of the multidimensionality of population displacement by focusing on the displacement that is not a direct consequence of armed conflict, which lies largely beyond the remit of UN-led humanitarian responses. They focus on this "non-conflict" displacement in the context of state-led economic development and private development, environmental change and natural disasters, and political developments. While acknowledging the differences in various displacement processes, their central argument is that they are similar enough that the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement should serve as the international standard to providing humanitarian assistance and protection to these populations of displaced people with a minimum aim to at least match those standards that in theory guide responses to armed conflict emergencies. They further address the definitional, conceptual, and legal-institutional challenges that would need to be overcome in order to achieve such a goal. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Christopher McDowell is a political anthropologist specialising in population displacement, forced migration and involuntary resettlement in the developing world. He has held research and teaching positions at Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Programme, Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University, Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and King’s College London. He has undertaken consultancy and advisory work for UN agencies, governments, development banks and NGOs and is currently a Reader in International Politics at City University London.