Circulating power: humanitarian logistics, militarism and the United Arab Emirates

Ziadah, Rafeef

Abstract

While critical authors have interrogated the roots of business logistics, this paper extends the analysis and contributes to a larger critique of the cohering field of Humanitarian Logistics (HL), noting the overlap in the logistical cartographies of militarism and humanitarianism. The focus is on the UAE’s expanding logistics space into the Horn of Africa and the production of specialised HL zones like Dubai International Humanitarian City (DIHC). The article makes three core arguments. First, a logistics lens enables us to expand the study of aid beyond immediate conflict zones, into more distant spaces often constructed as ‘stable’. Second, the placement of logistics at the core of aid delivery has been a key mechanism for inserting market imperatives into humanitarian activities. Third, this gives countries outside the advanced core, such as the UAE, power to leverage and expand their logistics space for multiple purposes, in war making, aid, and commercial activities.

Citation

Ziadah, R. (2019). Circulating power: humanitarian logistics, militarism and the United Arab Emirates. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 51(5), 1684-1702. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12547

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 23, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 27, 2019
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 16, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 16, 2019
• Print ISSN: 0066-4812
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8330
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1684-1702
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12547
• Keywords: humanitarian logistics, United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Dubai International Humanitarian City, Horn of Africa, Yemen
• Related Public URLs: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14678330