When Aid Becomes a Weapon

Angelina Schuelke & Yes Pujol

The Impact of the 2021 Military Coup on Humanitarian Assistance in Myanmar

Timeframe: 01/02/2021 – 01/05/2025

Myanmar · Humanitarian Interventions · Issue I

Key Insights

• 1. Does the long-standing belief that independent, international agencies are best suited to deliver humanitarian assistance still hold today?
• 2. Aid approaches in Myanmar should emphasise locality rather than neutrality.
• 3. The presence of a repressive military junta and numerous insurgency groups mean that traditional methods of aid distribution face many barriers to success. Hence, we recommend a humanitarian resistance approach.

Definition

Four cuts is a counter-insurgency strategy dating back to the 1960s designed to “cut rebel access to food, funds, intelligence, and recruits” (Ware & Laoutides, 2018, p. 16).

In this context, many international aid organisations are facing a humanitarian dilemma: to leave or to stay and collaborate with the junta?

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