History Commons^™

Smyrna's Ashes: Humanitarianism, Genocide And The Birth Of The Middle East, Michelle Tusan

History Faculty Research

Today the West tends to understand the Middle East primarily in terms of geopolitics: Islam, oil, and nuclear weapons. But in the nineteenth century it was imagined differently. The interplay of geography and politics found definition in a broader set of concerns that understood the region in terms of the moral, humanitarian, and religious commitments of the British empire. Smyrna’s Ashes reevaluates how this story of the “Eastern Question” shaped the cultural politics of geography, war, and genocide in the mapping of a larger Middle East after World War I.

David P. Forsythe And Charles J. Mach On Empire Of Humanity: A History Of Humanitarianism. By Michael Barnett. Ithaca, Ny: Cornell University Press, 2011. 312pp., David P. Forsythe, Charles J. Mach

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism. By Michael Barnett. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011. 312pp.

Unrwa: Through The Eyes Of Its Refugee Employees, Randa Farah

Randa R Farah Dr.

The article argues that the absence of Palestinian political leadership and institutions following al-Nakba in 1948, led the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to take on an exaggerated role that mirrored those of a welfare government-in-exile. The Agency created the matrix that organized daily life in refugee camps, a process facilitated by its Palestinian and refugee employees.1 Local staff holds a paradoxical position: (i) as Palestinians who share with their beneficiaries a collective history, and (ii) as UNRWA employees who exercise less power and authority compared to international staff. The latter …