Everybody's War

Everybody’s War offers a critical and nuanced examination of the humanitarian crisis generated by the Syrian conflict, moving beyond headline statistics to uncover the complex realities that shape aid delivery in war. Edited by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the volume challenges simplified narratives of good versus evil by interrogating how humanitarianism itself has been entangled with the political, legal, and economic dynamics of the war. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship and firsthand practitioner experience, the book reveals how healthcare systems were fragmented, how international humanitarian law both failed and was instrumentalized, and how siege warfare reshaped everyday life for civilians. In doing so, it situates Syria as a defining case for understanding the future of humanitarian action in protracted, politicized conflicts.

Key Features:

• Edited by Médecins Sans Frontières, combining academic rigor with field-based humanitarian insight
• Explores the politics of aid and humanitarian decision-making in the Syrian war
• Analyzes the fragmentation and targeting of Syrian healthcare systems
• Examines the role and limitations of international humanitarian law, including its misuse in enabling attacks on medical facilities
• Provides in-depth accounts of the lived experience of siege, capturing social, medical, and psychological dimensions
• Investigates how humanitarian actors inadvertently fed war economies and became entangled in information wars
• Highlights issues of humanitarian complicity, neutrality, and ethical ambiguity
• Brings together global perspectives from scholars and practitioners across disciplines
• Situates Syria as a case study for future humanitarian responses in complex conflicts
• Contributes a critical rethinking of humanitarianism in one of the defining crises of the 21st century