ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how various kinds of military operations differ in their relations to the humanitarian actors. It focuses on military –humanitarian relations because these often are the most strained and tense of all civil–military relationships in an intervention. The two camps, military and humanitarian, have been operating side by side in wars and conflicts since the nineteenth century. The chapter deals with a brief discussion of the international legal foundations – primarily the Geneva Conventions – that guide military and humanitarian interaction in interventions. Humanitarians sometimes mention them when they experience conflicts with the military. It presents various ideal-type constellations between militaries and humanitarians, based on a taxonomy of military operations. The Geneva Conventions underline the responsibility of the warring parties to ensure that the basic needs of the civilian population are provided for; they also stipulate that humanitarian actors require the consent of the warring parties to engage.
