Abstract International humanitarian interventions are intended to alleviate extensive human suffering within the defined and internationally recognized borders of a sovereign state. According to international norms, each state has a clear responsibility to respond to disasters that occur within its borders. However, humanitarian interventions, such as that following dam collapses in Derna (Libya) in September 2023, the case analyzed in this paper, are increasingly implemented in territories experiencing internal conflicts or civil wars, where controlling authority is in the hands of Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs). How, then, does the condition of civil war affect forms of international humanitarian assistance during disasters? We argue that in the context of civil wars, disaster-related humanitarian practices can be understood as evidence of “borderless interventionism,” where both NSAGs and international humanitarian operators give a new understanding to both recognized and de facto borders. Our case study shows that informal cooperation in disaster response is not sufficient to facilitate the conditions for peace. With this paper, we contribute to the literature on civil wars, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief, specifically in regard to the relationship between disaster-related humanitarian assistance and the condition of conflict.
Bartolucci et al. (Tue,) studied this question.