ABSTRACT
An examination of the challenges to effective humanitarian action necessarily begins with a word about the current historical and political moment. Early in the post-Cold War era, pivotal changes have occurred both in political and humanitarian institutions and in the concept of humanitarian action itself. The nature and extent of the violence confronting the world was hardly imagined by the framers of the United Nations Charter when they met in San Francisco as the bloodshed of World War II abated. At that time, the major actors in the world were composed of about fifty sovereign states. In legal and colloquial usage, the concept is maddeningly imprecise. In international law, the term "humanitarian" has never been defined with the precision accorded such concepts as human rights and refugee. Humanitarian institutions are called upon to function in a wide range of conflicts. Some armed conflicts are international, such as the Ogaden War between Ethiopia and Somalia or the Gulf War.
