At the Munich Security Conference, the language of deterrence, rearmament, and geopolitical rivalry dominates the halls. But the humanitarian sector also showed up to fight for its relevance in these conversations.
Armine Afeyan, the CEO of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, told Devex that she is there to reject the premise that we can either invest in humanitarianism or defense.
“It’s not an either-or,” she said. She was pleasantly surprised to see that humanitarian issues were not entirely peripheral to the discussions. “There’s an understanding that humanitarianism is increasingly part of the security apparatus,” she said.
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About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
