Opinion: A new aid model can better assist communities in pariah states

World leaders are struggling over how to engage with pariah states and groups. Using the traditional model of humanitarian aid as a form of political engagement is not the answer.

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are currently divided over how to engage with Myanmar’s military junta ruling the country since the February 2021 coup, while much of the West is adamant in its refusal to countenance doing so. In contrast with Myanmar, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, an internationally ostracized leader, has now been welcomed back into the fold of Arab world leaders. There are no indications of the Myanmar junta changing its approach as a result of Western sanctions and isolation, nor has the Assad regime seemingly softened its hard-line attitudes toward finding a political solution to the conflict affecting Syria for more than a decade.

In the absence of any political action, humanitarian aid is typically the default response to local populations’ acute needs. But the ability of humanitarian organizations to operate in contexts of contested regimes such as Myanmar is very limited.