Humanitarian Protection for Prisoners of War and Refugees in the Long Aftermath of the First World War

At the end of WWI, millions of prisoners of war and civilians were displaced across Europe, the South Caucasus, and the Eastern Mediterranean. While many made their way home, genocide, revolution, and post-war instability delayed the repatriation of prisoners of war from Russia and the Central Powers, while Russian and Armenian refugees were forced into exile. In response to the inconsistent efforts of governments, a series of international organizations intervened. Three of these—the International Committee of the Red Cross, the League of Nations, and the International Labour Organization—designed and implemented humanitarian, political, and legal measures to protect prisoners of war and refugees.

By examining together international officers, national representatives, relief workers, experts, local staff, prisoners of war, and refugees, the book sheds new light on the plurality of agencies and spaces that determined the contours of humanitarian protection and refugee politics. From international negotiations to the everyday practices of care, the book argues for the emergence of a plural, discordant, and gendered governance of refugee protection. This is a history of both failures and innovations, of compassion and cynicism, set against a complex and ever-changing political backdrop.

Francesca Piana is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Trento, Italy. She has published on the history of humanitarian aid, refugee politics, international social assistance, and emergency medicine in the journals Relations internationales, Contemporary European History, and Studi storici.

This book is available as open access, see link below.