Entangling in/security: On humanitarian action, the built environment and power

My dissertation investigates the spatial dynamics of humanitarian security management, focusing on the ICRC, MSF and CARE International as they operate in Ethiopia as an illustrative case study. International humanitarian organisations (IHOs) are increasingly retreating into fortified compounds as a result of both real and perceived threats against their staff, materials and operations. While real threats exist against IHO safety, the growing push for more security procedures, oversight and precautions may deepen the existing physical gap and unequal power relations between aid workers and the local population. The project evolves at the interface of two research areas: it articulates theoretical connections between analyses of security processes and power in humanitarian action and the material and spatial turn in international relations, and answers from the following main research question: how does a spatial approach to humanitarian security management reveal and hide particular power dynamics embedded in humanitarian aid delivery? The research question is addressed through extensive primary data collection in the form of fieldwork in Ethiopia with aid workers from the ICRC, MSF and CARE International. By showing how processes of power manifest in, and change the built environment, this dissertation contributes to ongoing debates in critical security studies as well as visual international relations.