Politicians, pathogens, and other threats to aid workers: a material semiotic analysis of violence against health care in the Syrian conflict

Abstract

This paper analyses humanitarian security in the framework of Donna Haraway's political material semiotics. It begins by arguing that targeted violence against health care constitutes a trope: a figure of speech that challenges and disrupts the established narrative of humanitarian security. Drawing on 20 in-depth expert interviews, the paper explores a case study of weaponisation of health care in the Syrian conflict (2011-present). It illustrates how different material-semiotic actors -such as politicians, pathogens, and medical infrastructure -condition and shape the security of humanitarian health workers in the opposition-held parts of the country. Taking medical facilities as its key unit of analysis, the paper shows how armed violence is not only directed towards these material-semiotic entities but amplified and transformed as it passes through them. In doing so, the paper sheds light on the formative role that nonhuman materialities play in the protection of aid workers and other civilian entities in armed conflict. The paper's findings also contribute towards an improved understanding of how previously under-appreciated variables impact the delivery of medical aid in complex humanitarian emergencies.

‘COVID-19 is just another way to die…’: a qualitative longitudinal study of frontline COVID-19 response governance across Syria

“…We categorised responses under: (1) frontline distrust and dissatisfaction; (2) complexity of governance actors 36 ; (3) limited response planning and implementation; (4) reliance on social media for COVID-19 information; (5) fluctuating public adherence and vaccine hesitancy; and (6) challenges and facilitators. Table 2 shows themes longitudinally over time, focusing on similarities among the three areas.…”

“…Healthcare has been politicised and weaponised through aid blockages and targeting of health facilities and personnel 32 33. Conflict-induced political changes have resulted in emergence of three major military governance areas with distinct health systems, each with different governance, capabilities and COVID-19 response approaches (figure 1)27 28 34: (1) government-controlled areas (GCA) dominating Syria’s south and centre35 36; (2) Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria-controlled areas (AACA) in the northeast, with approximately 100 000 of its 3.2 million people living in displacement camps37 38; and (3) opposition-controlled areas in Northwest Syria (OCA),39 with an estimated population of 4.2 million, over 2.8 million displaced from across the country—1.2 million of them in camps 40. COVID-19 responses for each area of control were primarily led by the Health Cluster in Gaziantep Türkiye for OCA (often sidelining health directorates (HD) in the region), by WHO and UNICEF for AACA and by the Ministry of Health in Damascus for GCA.…”

More-than-Human Space Diplomacy: Assembling Internationalism in Orbit

“…See, for example, Frowd and Sandor 2018;Salter 2015Salter , 2016Tammi 2021. 8 Dittmer 2015 Mitchell 2019, 61; see also Burke et al 2016 institutional -enmeshing of state actors in a diplomatic assemblage, there exists the possibility for co-operation and peace.…”

Fighting with words: humanitarian security and the changing role of law in contemporary armed conflict

“…33The interviews were carried out in a semi‐structured format during January–February 2020 and their results have been reported in further depth elsewhere (see Tammi, 2021, 2022). …”