The relation between humanitarian assistance and peace building

Humanitarian aid considered as independent domain following humanitarian principles and deliver aid neutrally to people in need in different crisis –both natural and conflict born crisis – based on needs only without any linkages or ties to the political, military and peacebuilding/peacekeeping missions till the end of cold war in the nineties. After the end of the cold war and the establishment of the new political order and new war and context, two principal doctrines raised about the way of delivering humanitarian assistance. First doctrine says that humanitarian assistance should have drastic reformation and adapt to the new global context and being linked to the peacebuilding and political agendas to have more permanent solution for the conflict even with compromising on humanitarian principles including neutrality while the other doctrine says that humanitarian assistance should stick to the humanitarian principles and the roots and fundamentals of humanitarian assistance focusing on the vital role of humanitarian assistance in saving lives rather than serving political agendas. This study reviews both doctrines in different contexts and provides recommendations on which doctrine make more sense and should be followed.