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Ebola – how a people’s science helped end an epidemic

ultimately supported the claim that operational contexts are increasingly dangerous, which in turn has bolstered a stepwise process that validates the need for security experts and their associated guidelines, tools and technologies. From the analysis of humanitarian manuals that follows, a number of assumptions are further expounded by Beerli and Weissman, including the supposed utility of standardized security procedures and technical strategies, and the devaluation of the humanitarian’s ability to understand and interpret shifting contextual dynamics, and to establish and maintain relationships with local actors. In the final Practice section, the review of high-profile events in the Central African Republic, Syria, the Caucasus and a shorter study of MSF’s projects in Yemen, offer a more nuanced reading of security incidents, aided by the detailed description of disparate geopolitical contexts, and the particularities of MSF operations in each setting. In an interview with Chedorge, previously an Emergency Coordinator for MSF in the Central African Republic, Neuman explores the internal processes and key decisions that determined the risk faced by staff during the height of the conflict in 2013–2014. In the following chapter, Soussan describes MSF’s projects in northern Syria in 2013, with a focus on the rise of the Islamic State in the region, and the eventual impact on MSF’s ability to deliver medical care safely. This contribution raises important questions of MSF’s co-management of health facilities and the use of protectors with military affiliations as a means to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. In the final chapter, McLean describes the kidnapping of Arjan Erkel, then MSF’s Head of Mission in Dagestan in 2002, and the negotiation tactics and other communication strategies that were adopted before his release almost two years later. In its entirety, this book makes a valuable contribution to on-going discussions related to risk and security in humanitarian response. These contemporary debates regain their rich history in the book’s first two chapters, while existing forms of data collection and analysis, and associated technical security documents, are heavily critiqued in the section that follows. The final chapters not only exemplify the diverse forms of detailed qualitative analysis that can be used to gain a deeper understanding of security incidents, but stand as testament to the complexity of humanitarian programming in contemporary crises.