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The global rise in illiberalism has locked the United Nations and humanitarianism itself in a seismic shift.
The big focus is on dramatic funding cuts to international aid: The US is traditionally the biggest contributor by volume to foreign aid, and the humanitarian impacts have been deadly. For example, a study published in The Lancet projects that the cuts could lead to 14 million deaths in the next five years.
But just talking about money may miss the point.
“We aren’t necessarily in a crisis of funding, but more of a crisis of how liberalism is practised,” host Tammam Aloudat says, speaking with longtime UN observers Mark Leon Goldberg and Anjali Dayal in a new episode of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast.
“The US government does not care if Americans die. It is a murder regime in that way,” says Dayal, who is an assistant professor of international politics at Fordham University. “It is an actively pro-death government. So we shouldn't be surprised when that casts out to the global scale also.”
What does this mean for the future of humanitarianism and the UN? What does a better way forward look like? And what are the first steps to get there?
Goldberg and Dayal, hosts of the UN-focused podcast To Save Us From Hell, help unpack these and other questions.
Guests:
Mark Leon Goldberg, editor-in-chief of UN Dispatch, host of Global Dispatches and co-host of To Save Us From Hell
Anjali Dayal, author, assistant professor of international politics at Fordham University, and co-host of To Save Us From Hell
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