Today We Drop Bombs, Tomorrow We Build Bridges

'An indispensible inquiry into our moral health and humanity.' LSE Review of Books The war on terror has politicised foreign aid as never before. Aid workers are being killed at an alarming rate and civilians in war-torn countries abandoned to their fate. From the ravaged streets of Mogadishu to the unending struggle in Helmand, Peter Gill travels to some of the most conflict-stricken places on earth to reveal the true relationship between the aid business and Western security. While some agencies have clung to their neutrality against ever stiffer odds, others have compromised their impartiality to secure the flow of official funds. In a world where the advance of Islamic State constitutes the gravest affront to humanitarian practice and principle the aid community has faced in decades, Gill poses the crucial question - can Western nations fight in a country and aid it at the same time?

Peter Gill

Introduction: Humanitarian Armada Part I: Front Lines 1. End of the White Saviour 2. Development at Gunpoint 3. Meetings with Remarkable Men 4. Taking a Bullet for Polio 5. Frontier Manoeuvres 6. Blue UN, Black UN 7. Delay Costs Lives 8. Acts of Faith Part II: Home Fronts 9. With All Those Who Suffer 10. When Aid Becomes a Crime 11. Doing Well by Doing Good 12. The Police, Not the Stasi 13. Making Poverty History? 14. French Lessons 15. Running Out of Words Conclusion: How Many Cheers for Neutrality?