Australia and the promise and the perils of humanitarian diplomacy

ABSTRACT

Humanitarian diplomacy has always been a crucial element of humanitarianism, however it is now becoming a more prominent element of states’ foreign policies. It holds many attractions and much promise. It provides states with a way of expressing important qualities of international empathy and solidarity and can also enhance a state’s international reputation and provide valuable means for building relationship of trust and cooperation. This can in turn can be conducive to a state’s broader foreign policy objectives. However, there are also perils to the incorporation of humanitarian diplomacy into a state’s foreign policy. It can generate ambiguity and even conflict within a state’s diplomatic endeavours due to tensions between humanitarian and broader national interests. In exploring these issues it is useful to distinguish between humanitarian diplomacy and humanitarianism as diplomacy. This article explores these issues in relations to Australia’s diplomacy. It argues that Australia has actively engaged in humanitarian diplomacy and humanitarianism as diplomacy. Whilst the two are often complementary, there are areas in which they have been in tension and even at odds. This has implications for Australia’s international reputation but also for its capacity to undertake genuine and effective humanitarian action.

KEYWORDS:

• Humanitarianism
• diplomacy
• Australia

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Rob Lamontagne for his very capable research assistance and Sue Harris Rimmer for her comments on an earlier version of this article. Research for this article was supported by a grant received from the Research School of Asia and the Pacific in the Australian National University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The document gives particular emphasis to the complementarity between Australia’s development and economic diplomacy, which are viewed as ‘mutually reinforcing’. See for instance page 12.