Humanitarian virtue: identifying ethics and values in humanitarian thinking

Abstract

This paper proposes that ethical thinking provides a useful lens for understanding how different approaches to humanitarian thinking may be connected through the values that underpin them. In the era of polycrisis, humanitarianism is continually expanding to accommodate a proliferation of diverse actors. Importantly, concerns are often raised about how ‘humanitarian’ some of them are, which can influence cooperation and interaction. Ethical thinking is a valuable way of interpreting commonalities and differences between actors because actions, policies, and ideas are buttressed by values that frequently remain unspoken. Therefore, we examine 14 approaches to humanitarian thinking so we can highlight key ways of comprehending: what is good; the tension between means and ends; and for whom we are responsible. We propose a number of clusters of ethical thinking that capture how different groups answer these questions, and we discuss how they may help identify points of unity and division and appreciate the values that support choices and actions in humanitarian contexts.