International Responses to Human Displacement: Neo-Liberalism and Post-Cold War Geopolitics

Abstract

This paper explores conditions which shape current international interventions to assist displaced persons. In particular, the intersection of neo-liberal politics at the national level with international geopolitics after the CoId War, and subsequent strategies of managing human displacement are examined. First, a trend in domestic politics and policies in Canada is illustrated through a series of current examples. From these vignettes, a pattern of neo-liberalism emerges. Second, a trend is noted towards increased peacekeeping operations and the deployment of'preventive protection'-a strategy which emphasizes assistance to displaced persons within their country of origin, often within a conflict zone-since the end of the Cold War. The possibility of a connection between neo-liberalism at home and peacekeeping and preventive protection abroad is explored. The irnperfect humanism of the international refugee regime is being superseded, it is argued, by a dangerous 'neo-humanism' maintained through pervasive neoliberal policies at national and international levels.