Help or hindrance? The role of humanitarian military interventions in human security NGO operations

Abstract

Existing research shows that the combined presence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and military interventions can serve as ‘force multipliers’, leading to improvements in some human security outcomes. In this paper, we examine a couple possible mechanisms that can help to explain why we see these improvements. More specifically, we ask whether this is a result of military intervention aiding in the coordination among NGOs or whether humanitarian interventions, that likely share similar goals with human rights NGOs, provide the security necessary for them to carry out their missions. Using data on military interventions and human rights NGOs, we find that NGOs present in states with humanitarian interventions have more network ties than organizations not in states with interventions. Using the same NGO data and data on terror attacks targeting NGOs, we find less support for the security enhancing effects of humanitarian interventions.