Centre for Policy Research is delighted to invite you to a talk by 

 Dr. Anne Hammerstad

 Lecturer in International Relations

School of Politics and International Relations

University of Kent

 On

The Rise and Decline of a Global Security Actor: UNHCR, Refugee Protection and Security

On the occasion of the launch of her new book, published by Oxford University Press

 Discussant: Dominik Bartsch,

Chief of Mission, UNHCR New Delhi, India

 Date: Wednesday, 23 April 2014

 Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm

 Venue: Conference Room, Centre for Policy Research, DharamMarg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021

 Abstract: 

Dr Hammerstad presents her new book, which investigates the rise of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a global security actor, following the refugee agency through some of the past two decades’ major conflict-induced humanitarian crises, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo and eastern Zaire/Congo. She analyses UNHCR’s momentous transformation from a small, timid legal protection agency to the world’s foremost humanitarian actor playing a central role in the international response to the many wars of the tumultuous last decade of the 20th century. Then, as the 21^st century set in, the agency’s political prominence waned. It remains a major humanitarian actor, but the polarised post-9/11 period and a worsening protection climate for refugees and asylum seekers spurred UNHCR to abandon its claim to be a global security actor and return to a more modest, quietly diplomatic role.

The rise of UNHCR as a global security actor is placed within the context of the dramatic shift in perceptions of national and international security after the end of the Cold War. Prominent among ‘new’ security issues were the perceived threats posed by refugees and asylum seekers to international security, state stability, and societal cohesion. ‘The Rise and Decline of a Global Security Actor’ investigates UNHCR’s response to this new international environment; adopting, adapting and finally abandoning a security discourse on the refugee problem.

In this seminar Dr Hammerstad will draw lines from the findings of her book to discuss some key questions on the future of international humanitarian action in the polarized and dangerous environments of countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia. How can UN agencies and NGOs avoid the stamp of being part of ‘western agendas’? Is principled, neutral, needs-based humanitarian aid in conflict zones possible? How can it best be achieved – or at least approximated?

Speaker’s Biography:

Dr Anne Hammerstad is a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Kent, research associate of the South African Institute of International Affairs, and recent Global Uncertainties Fellow with the British Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). She received her DPhil from Oxford University, MSc from the London School of Economics, and BA from the University of Oslo. Her doctoral thesis won the 2003 thesis prize from the British International Studies Association.

In addition to the book 'The Rise and Decline of a Global Security Actor: UNHCR, Refugee Protection and Security’ (OUP, 2014), Anne has published on migration, refugees, conflict and security in, among others, Security Dialogue,Review of International Studies, and Conflict, Security and Development, and is a contributing author to the Oxford Handbook on Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (OUP, 2014 forthcoming).

Anne has previously worked as a Senior Researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, a Research and Teaching Fellow at Royal Holloway, University of London, and journalist with the Norwegian newspaper, Dagbladet. 

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A line of confirmation will be highly appreciated.

With regards,

Navroz Dubash

Officiating President