MSF's Role in Global Politics: Strategies, Challenges, & Impact

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A Discussion and Analysis of Medecins Sans Frontieres' Role and impact in Contemporary Global Politics, Specifically in the Issue Area of Humanitarian Relief

Historical OutlineMedecins Sans Frontieres' (MSF) is a global, independent medical and humanitarian organisation. The organisation provides medical aid towards individuals facing conflict, epidemics, calamities, or lack of access to medical care. MSF was founded in 1971 in Paris by a team of medical providers and journalists. Around this time, France endorsed the Biafrans, a state in Western Africa that existed from 1967 to 1970 (Welsh, 2018). During this period, there was the civil war of Nigeria, and a team of French doctors offered themselves to work with French Red Cross to provide medical assistance in the medical centres and feed the weak individuals. Soon after, MSF was formed, which also focused on issuing surgical services in addition to emergency responses (Welsh, 2018). MSF members supported the human rights of being neutral. It has grown majorly from the continuing needs of humanitarian relief. There have been earthquakes destroying cities, for example, an earthquake in 1972, which claimed about 30,000 deaths (Ott &Valero, 2018). There have also been hurricanes as well as mass killings and other calamities, which have seen the medical aid and emergency response that MSF has offered. Another factor for growth has been donations and improvement of financial independence. Financial growth has increased MSF in other countries as well, such as Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, and Holland.

Governing PrinciplesThe governing principles for the existence of MSF and the roles it plays are based on the principle of humanity and the principle of independence. Humanitarian activities are founded on some concepts, also such as neutrality and impartiality. Neutrality is currently a value aimed to be questioned in specific scenarios. It seeks to answer whether there is a fundamental ground to which humanitarian organisations are responsible when experiencing situations of difficulty and violence-related. The principle of humanity attempts to ascertain that all people are treated humanely and all conditions. This principle is the justification of MSF. Therefore, MSF has been independent of any constraints to increase its reason for being an AID organisation (Naqvi & Elasia, 2019). It has also acted independently, free from any political, financial, and military factors.

Engagement in International RelationsIt is essential to define international relations (I.R.) as the study of interconnectedness of politics, economics, and law on a global level. It can be explained as the political process and various aspects of engagements among two or more countries. In this field, there is political science that is related to the study of relations between the states, the international policies, the mechanisms, intergovernmental organisations, and more via which countries engage (Bienen, 2019). In this case, MSF is discussed from a global point of view. Generally, I.R. has affected unity in MSF and all the parties involved with the actor. I.R., by nature, is interactive and has enabled this actor to interact and relate with one another between countries (Bienen, 2019). There are various theories used in I.R. One of those theories is the idealist approach.

MSF influences and utilises this theory since the theory is focused on developing the course of international relations through the removal of war, hunger, inequality, tyranny, and oppression (Bienen, 2019). For MSF, emergency reactions keep on growing to be the primary role, especially in treating war-injured individuals in war countries such as Yemen. As mentioned above, the support offered by MSF is reliant on the location and the difficulty being experienced. Different countries experience different challenges. In Africa, most individuals experience hunger and disease pandemics. For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ebola is a great pandemic, and MSF provides health support in the region as cholera treatment in Niger. As part of this idealistic approach, MSF offers medical aid to visible and invisible injuries globally and working towards improving patient care (Naqvi & Eliasia, 2019). In 2018, for example, DRC was in the midst of its Ebola outbreak and the most dreadful. However, rapid and well resourced, MSF used teams accessing to a better vaccine and various drugs with the possibility to avert and treat individuals, MSF was challenged in adapting to the individual's priorities, and to increase the trust of the society. It is important to note that the influence of MSF in international relations has been enabled by the infrastructure of globalisation, which has permitted different types of international activists and organisations such as MSF to access international arenas. Various kinds of claim-making and oppositional politics articulate these advancements as well as the global economy. The organisational sector of the worldwide economy materialises in a global grid of strategic places, among which is an international business and financial centres (Milner, 2009). The cross-border network of foreign states enables the development of new kinds of international politics of place that involve globalisation, environment, and human rights. It has therefore enabled a focus on some of these sectors from a different organisation; in this case, MSF focuses on human rights. MSF, through globalisation, has been enabled to operate via the networks of other countries and engaging other political actors formal and informal. Such actors include the government, local police force, and more. These actors are mostly used to influence policies and regulations as well as offer legal support for humanitarian support (Welsh, 2018).

Strategies, Partnerships, and ChallengesMSF uses strategies as the organisation experiences challenges in humanitarian action. Humanitarian action is supposed to be used in disastrous periods (Welsh, 2018). However, it can be interrupted by some state laws and armies. In this case, even when international law permits humanitarian action, the action can be denied since it can be influenced to endorse a political agenda. Also, it can be used to assist powerful elites in raising their wealth, power, or forwarding their military strategies as well as conceal a political action. One example included the area of Kosovo and East Timor. In this region, there was a civil war that propelled violence and oppression (Naqvi & Elasia, 2019). As a result, international society intervened to halt the outcome of the war. Military action was undertaken via consensus in the West but failed to pass via the Security Council.

The military intervention was opposed by numerous countries and leaders and was seen very much as the operation of the United States and other Western countries (Tortajada, 2016). The military was utilised to offer humanitarian assistance to the same governments that were dropping bombs in the regions. Victims and aggressors started to see Western politicians, their armies, and humanitarian response as parts of a single effort. The governments failed to permit MSF and allow them as neutral and independent humanitarian actors. The governments denied MSF access since they originate from the West. MSF proposes that humanitarian action should be unbiased and ascertain that the governments provide a minimum of critical assistance to all those caught up in crisis. The operations in these regions have undermined these essential understanding of impartiality, neutrality, and independence (Welsh, 2018). It is an example of a challenge faced by MSF. The current moral brand of intervention on the grounds of humanitarian concerns failed to stretch to Chechnya, where the humanitarian agencies such as MSF have been denied access to operate alongside shattered individuals.

As a result, MSF has been investigating strategies to improve the understanding, meaning, and use of humanitarian aid. MSF uses workshops in the field, gathering senior members, and discuss the barriers to the action and the manipulation of their help. The regional meetings serve to show the emerging challenges that MSF experiences in merely attempting to provide the weakest humanitarian assist and to recognise strategies to improve their work (Milner, 2009). The most critical factor is being MSF limits and the response that they can undertake. Comprehension of these limits is significant, and MSF cannot enforce and guarantee all human rights. However, strategies and discussions are held to ensure that there is essential assistance to all those that MSF can reach. Ultimately, culture and diversity enhance richness to humanity, and it works hand in hand with MSF. MSF has enabled programs that invest more time and effort in comprehending the views of partners, governments, as well as increasing the actions of the organisation (Milner, 2009). It is proposed that there are between 25 and 40 million displaced people in the world (Bienen, 2019). The humanitarian response for them has grown to become a palliative, involving crisis and excusing the lack of political action to identify permanent solutions (Bienen, 2019). The U.N. has a special High Commission for refugees that attempt to guarantee refugees aid and protection. There is now a global mechanism to protect internally displaced individuals, and MSF has enabled health providence and response to help them gain back control over their lives (Tortajada, 2016). The reaction to natural disasters for MSF appears to be less complicated than helping individuals in a conflict area. A review was made within the organisation to identify some reasons for ineffectiveness in humanitarian assistance. Some challenges include timing, and MSF realised that lateness was a cause of poor results in humanitarian aid. As a solution, it was proposed that MSF increase their selection in response to natural calamities so that one choice will get full attention. Many of these strategies and solutions are ways of tackling the structural forces that perpetuate inequality. It is important to note that structural forces in society have to be aligned to develop predictable patterns of disenfranchisement, including inter-generational poverty and poor health. Archetypes society includes various populations, mainly race, gender, socioeconomic, martial, or immigration status. These populations fail to be social tropes that define the broad categorisation of people (Ott & Valero, 2018). Traditionally and over the years, these social constructs lay deep roots in the political process that manage communities, processes that, in turn, advise many of the institutions on which the population depends on including the justice system, education, and public health system. The pattern of influence is challenging to MSF since it permits shared general stereotypes to drive primary public policy, which increases bias and, ultimately, inequality, which propels poverty. For example, in America, Black Americans consist of ab...