In this tenth episode of DST, Christian Harbulot and Arnaud de Morgny return to the fundamentals: a two-voice discussion devoted to NGOs and their role in contemporary power dynamics.
Through six major “traps” that non-governmental organizations can fall into, CH and ADM unpack—drawing on several case studies—the drifts that threaten their credibility: disinformation, hidden financial interests, economic instrumentalization, moral confusion, or political compromise.
From Greenpeace to Amnesty International, via WWF campaigns and European affairs, each example reveals the transformation of a model born in Biafra in the 1970s: that of the French Doctors, driven by the humanitarian ideal, now confronted with professionalization, cross-funding, and influence strategies.
How can an NGO become a weapon of economic warfare? Can one still speak of a countervailing power when some are funded by those they are supposed to monitor?
An essential episode, unsparing, on the drifts of an instrumentalized civil society.
