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Land Cruising the Road to Hell

As evidenced by their titles, The Road to Hell and Building the Peace share little in common. In the first, the author ravages the aid community in an anecdotal, semi-historical narrative, with no footnotes and therefore no way of verifying the authenticity of his strong claims. In the second, the author provides a thoroughly documented, albeit sloppily edited, tale of one organization’s positive experience of peacebuilding in Somalia. The first author writes in a compelling and extremely articulate fashion, while the second drones on with too much detail. Michael Maren sees no positive effects in international aid work, while Wolfgang Heinrich is perhaps overly optimistic about the contribution of the Swedish nongovernmental organization (NGO), Life & Peace Institute, to peacebuilding in Somalia. Both deserve a hearing, but for different reasons. Since its publication, The Road to Hell has had a significant impact internationally, in both academic and policy-making circles, and has spurred a debate about the purpose and method of delivering humanitarian aid. Although Maren’s writing is persuasive, he loses the very people who need to hear his message because his attack is too vociferous and one-sided. The humanitarian community has certainly grown significantly in the past decade and is now a multi-billion dollar industry, incorporating a plethora of organizations: nongovernmental, governmental, and multilateral. Despite the vast funds and political commitment invested in humanitarian relief and development work, until very recently, these organizations somehow managed to side-step the serious scrutiny that large corporations, such as Shell and Exxon, face concerning their involvement in and contribution to large-scale disasters. “Doing Good” should not imply an evasion of accountability and responsibility. And indeed, because most humanitarian organizations operate in insecure and complex