ABSTRACT
Internal displacement issues emerged at the end of the Cold War, as decision-makers' attention turned to state collapse and internal strife. Because internally displaced person (IDP) literature emerged alongside humanitarian crises, many concepts were forged in response to field experiences. Their diversity suggests a variety of purposes underlying research on displaced persons. This chapter summarizes the simplified picture of the state of the literature on IDPs in international politics. It addresses several fields of study provide a background from which IDPs' issues within the context of debates on asylum seeking, intervention and so on. The chapter reviews studies that provide an analytical understanding of some of the issues found at the interfaces between research areas. IDPs represent only a subset of the civilians on behalf of whom the international community becomes active during humanitarian operations. Protection and containment are the public justifications grounding all IDP policies. They are the policy aims enclosing all motives for engagement, including media-induced pressure.
