Henry Dunant's Imagined Community: Humanitarianism and the Tragic. (February 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Warner, Daniel
• Is Part Of: Alternatives. Volume 38:Number 1(2013)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 28
• Publication Date: 2013-02
• Subjects: humanitarianism -- Henry Dunant -- réveil -- ICRC -- political/humanitarian divide; Globalization -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Periodicals; 306.2
• DOI: 10.1177/0304375412469315
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0304-3754

Abstract

Humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect are two examples often used of the separation between humanitarian action and the political. To say that humanitarianism is separate from the political comes from a very particular theological reading. To understand this reading, the article provides a detailed analysis of the life of Henry Dunant, the founder of the ICRC, to show his religious and historical environment in Calvinist Geneva.