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Humanitarian Action in Times of War-A Handbook for Practitioners By Larry Minear and Thomas G. Weiss and Landmines: Legacy of Conflict-A Manual for Development Workers By Rae McGrath Reviewed by Victor Tanner in Development in Practice, vol. 4, no. 3, October 1994 As aid workers find themselves working more and more often with societies beset by armed conflict, they must confront the difficult problems arising from the violent environment around them. These difficulties range from the very general to the more specific, and there are no easy answers to them. Here, then are two books offering advice and guidance to development and relief workers operating in situations of conflict. Both claim to be guidebooks for practitioners. Both are useful, but they address very different types of issues, and probably quite different audiences. Landmines: Legacy of Conflict looks at a specific, yet crucial, problem: landmines. It is a short–and therefore valuable–yet superbly comprehensive account of landmines, their effect on civilian populations, and how to behave in an environment where there mines. Many conflicts around the world pit governments against insurgents. Often the prime military objectives are to restrict the other side geographically (‘area denial’) and prevent local communities from supporting it. Both objectives can be achieved by laying mines. Mines inhibit movement on the ground. They can also bring everyday rural life to a standstill. Over the past few years, with relief and rehabilitation operations starting or expanding in Afghanistan, Iraq, Angola, Cambodia, Mozambique, Somalia and, Nicaragua, and elsewhere, landmines have become an increasingly central issue in the relief and development community. Aid workers have become more aware of the effects of mines on communities–and on relief operations. In certain countries landmines have become the single most crucial long-term rehabilitation issue. McGrath explains the pervasive effects of landmines in rural areas. His analysis shows how groups that are economically and socially more vulnerable than others are also more vulnerable to mines. Rural people are more vulnerable than city-dwellers, nomads more vulnerable than sedentary farmers. Marginal workers such as laborers and collectors of firewood and water, children and populations on the move (refugees and internally displaced) suffer more from landmines than more favored elements of society. Also at greater risk are women, because of the tasks they perform in many rural societies. (McGrath does not explicitly show this, but his point is otherwise clear). McGrath offers solid, practical advice to aid-workers dealing with landmines, including a description of how mines work and are laid, how to recognize mine-infested areas, and what to do when one has actually strayed into a mine-field. His advice is straightforward and should be of great help to any development worker, national or expatriate, operating in a conflict situation. If it has not already been done, I hope this book will be translated into other languages, so that relief workers who do not understand English may have access to it. One issue that McGrath does not broach is a phenomenon that many aid workers have experienced: the reluctance of certain poor communities to join mine-clearing activities. Agencies usually engage in these either at the end of conflicts or during lulls in the fighting, when insecurity is high. The mines initially cleared are often those that local communities are aware of, and they sometimes rely on them as a form of protection from outside aggression. It would have been interesting to have McGrath’s expert view on this point. All in all, however, this is a most useful book to any development worker operating in conflict areas. Humanitarian Action in Times of War has a far more general focus. Despite being quite short, it draws up a sweeping and somewhat over-ambitious list of the many difficult issues facing relief agencies operating in areas of conflict. In fact, the structure is quite slack, given the length of the second chapter and the range of issues raised. Most of these issues are important and all are interesting. Some are practical questions like the protection of relief operations in lawless environments (Somalia, for example), monitoring requirements in times of conflict, and the difficulties of staffing in complex emergencies. Other issues are more abstract: do relief operations actually fuel conflicts? How does one weigh national sovereignty against humanitarian action? Can one use relief programs to reduce levels of violence? The check-list to help agencies determine their comparative advantage before intervening in an armed conflict is useful. Even the somewhat sonorous ‘providence principles’ to guide humanitarian action come as welcome summary and reminder of what relief should be about. However, the reader remains hungry. The text is more of an exhaustive catalogue than attempt at analysis. The authors bring together the issues and then decline to tackle them. In particular, the links between the various forces at play are not described, despite the fact that we are warned that they do not stand in ‘solitary splendor.’ A further weakness lies in the book’s ambiguity about it intended audience. The authors claim in their preface that they are writing for the ‘humanitarian workers with dirty fingernails’. Beyond that rather unfortunate cliché, may relief workers will feel somewhat frustrated after reading this book. Those seeking hands-on advice on practical operational issues–programming, security, or neutrality–will not find it in this book, unlike those reading McGrath’s book on landmines. In fairness, the authors do not set out to serve that purpose. But I suspect that even those development workers attempting to gain a bigger picture of the complex environment which they are part of might feel unsatisfied. They will be put off by the book’s tendency to use over-complicated language and its catalogue-like tone. It informs them of issues they were already aware of, but leaves them none of the wiser about how to deal with them. The authors’ claim to reach the grassroots of relief practice is further undermined by the fact that their book is quite clearly aimed at international organizations. Little of the discourse seems aimed at either national staff or local organizations. This is because the issues chosen are those facing external rather than local actors, and are general rather than specific. Moreover, the authors’ style will prove difficult for readers with less than fluent command of English. However, the initiative to have the book published in French and Spanish must be applauded. In the final analysis, the book should be taken as an attempt to collect as many conflict-related issues as possible in one readable volume and get them ‘out there,’ so that relief professionals–at all levels–can discuss them. In this respect, it is an innovative and commendable effort which I shall certainly take with me next time I go to the field.