A clash of principles? Humanitarian action and the search for stability in Pakistan

This HPG Policy Brief explores the role of principled humanitarian action in relation to the response to the current crisis in Pakistan. Drawing on secondary documentation and interviews with key informants in July 2009, it asks whether aid agencies should restrict themselves to a relatively limited role in an effort to ensure principled humanitarian action, or whether they should compromise their principles in an effort to achieve greater humanitarian outcomes within broader political and security agendas.