HIP2015, Session: Humanitarian Innovation and The Military

Nathaniel Raymond, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, James Ryan, University of London. Chair: Josiah Kaplan, Humanitarian Innovation Project.
Military and humanitarian actors increasingly interact across a range of contexts, from natural disaster response to complex emergencies. To date, however, sensitive but important questions surrounding knowledge creation, diffusion, and exchange between both communities remain under-explored, both in debates on humanitarian innovation and humanitarian civil-military coordination. This panel seeks to prompt critical discussion around a sensitive topic by examining how innovative forms of knowledge are created, diffused, and exchanged between military and humanitarian space.
How do aid workers learn, adapt, and 'rebrand' military innovations for civilian use? To what degree are military actors adapting humanitarian concepts and practices for their own use? What sensitivities and dilemmas do such interactions pose for both humanitarian practice and principles?
This discussion will be grounded in concrete case studies drawn from medical humanitarianism and emerging approaches to networked technologies such as remote sensing and mapping.