Dissertation Improvement Grant in Sociology: Humanitarian Security in Assistance Contexts

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NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant -- Marianne Abbott (Co-PI), The Ohio State University J. Craig Jenkins (PI), The Ohio State UniversityDangerous Intervention: Humanitarian Security in Assistance ContextsHumanitarian aid agencies are challenged by a tragic aspect of their missions -- fatal attacks on assistance providers. This research addresses two broad questions related to this social problem: Who perpetrates fatal attacks against aid workers and why are attackers engaging in this violence? Since the early 1990s, fatal attacks leveled at aid personnel have included a broad range of events and a large number of incidents, spanning from random violence to premeditated murder. Work on this project to date involves the construction of a database of news-reported aid worker fatalities that identifies almost 1,000 aid worker deaths resulting from violent attacks over the past 15 years. The analytical component of this research is twofold: First, we will cross-validate our news dataset with existing agency-reported death estimates to ensure that we have the fullest possible fatality dataset. We will additionally refine variables that identify the nature of these attacks, the agents involved, and the intentions behind these attacks. These enhancements will improve the quality of our analysis of these incidents and the sociopolitical contexts in which they events occur. The broader impact of this research relates to its real-world implications vis-a-vis humanitarian security issues. We seek to discover who is doing the attacking and why. These questions indirectly address one of the key issues facing humanitarian agencies - "what is the best response to violent attack?" Should workers be withdrawn? Should they address violence by persisting and improving coordination with militaries and peacekeepers? As this project is grounded in a careful construction and validation of the aid worker fatality dataset, and seeks to operationalize and refine two very important variables, these data and this analysis will also provide useful information to policymakers and humanitarian aid organizations attempting to provide better security for their aid workers.