Carceral Humanitarianism and Genocide

This paper examines starvation as a historical modality of genocide through a comparative analysis of Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan, drawing on Helen Fein’s concept of genocide by attrition to understand how mass death is produced through sustained deprivation rather than immediate extermination. Situating contemporary hunger regimes within longer histories of siege warfare, colonial population management, and humanitarian intervention, the paper argues that starvation in these cases is a deliberate strategy of rule, mediated through blockades, infrastructure destruction, and the regulation of humanitarian access. By tracing how humanitarian relief has historically functioned alongside violence, from late colonial governance to post–Cold War humanitarianism, the paper develops the concept of carceral humanitarianism to show how care becomes a mechanism of containment, surveillance, and abandonment. In foregrounding these historical continuities, the paper reframes starvation crimes as intentional practices of population destruction rather than humanitarian failure.