Humanitarian Affairs: David Forsythe's Contribution to the Study of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Humanitarian Politics

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Notes

¹“I consider myself a sympathetic critic of the ICRC. I am sympathetic towards what the ICRC tries to do for the individual around the world. But at times I am critical of how the ICRC goes about its protection and assistance efforts” (Forsythe 1977: xi).

²A Red Cross Conference in 1965 adopted seven official principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. “The central idea for the Red Cross was help to fellow men in need” (Forsythe 1977: 34).

³The ICRC also acts in violent situations that fall short of armed conflict. Hungary in 1919 experienced some domestic tensions that fell short of a civil war. Despite the fact that these tensions did not constitute an armed conflict the ICRC tried to visit detained persons that they referred to as “those detained by reason of events” (Forsythe 1977: 34).

⁴“I am less interested in the letter of the law per se, and more interested in what actually happens to ICRC attempts to help victims caught up in conflict situations” (Forsythe 2005: 5).

⁵Best also noted: “He is the most scholarly and experienced of all who had written about the ICRC ‘from outside.’ By that I mean no more than that an American political scientist is in a position to view the ICRC with a degree of detachment which I believe to be beyond the reach of anyone on its payroll or of Swiss nationality” (1994: 380).

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Barbara ANN Rieffer-flanagan

Barbara Ann Rieffer-Flanagan is an associate professor of political science at Central Washington University. She has published articles on human rights, US democracy promotion, and Middle East politics and co-authored a book on the International Committee of the Red Cross. Her most recent project, Evolving Iran, will be published by Georgetown University Press in 2013.