<P>From natural disaster areas to zones of political conflict around the world, a newlogic of intervention combines military action and humanitarian aid, conflates moral imperatives andpolitical arguments, and confuses the concepts of legitimacy and legality. The mandate to protecthuman lives--however and wherever endangered--has given rise to a new form of humanitariangovernment that moves from one crisis to the next, applying the same battery of technical expertise(from military logistics to epidemiological risk management to the latest social scientific toolsfor "good governance") and reducing people with particular histories and hopes to merelives to be rescued. This book explores these contemporary states of emergency. Drawing on thecritical insights of anthropologists, legal scholars, political scientists, and practitioners fromthe field, </P><P> <I>Contemporary States of Emergency</I> examineshistorical antecedents as well as the moral, juridical, ideological, and economic conditions thathave made military and humanitarian interventions common today. It addresses the practical processof intervention in global situations on five continents, describing both differences andsimilarities, and examines the moral and political consequences of these generalized states ofemergency and the new form of government associated with them.</P>