Abstract

The League of Red Cross Societies (LRCS) – known as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) since 1991 – has received little historical attention despite representing the world’s largest volunteer network and being an integral part of the Red Cross Movement. Formed in the aftermath of the First World War by the national Red Cross Societies of the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan, the LRCS aspired to lead in the promotion of global public health and welfare during peacetime. Through the lens of assemblage thinking and the five assemblage elements of exteriority, capacity to evolve, internal machinery, open systems, and desire, the paper seeks to understand the longevity and resilient humanitarianism of the LRCS. In doing so, the paper provides a new conceptualisation of the LRCS that helps to explain how it survived in the rapidly changing and increasingly contested international humanitarian environment of the twentieth century.

摘要

红十字会联盟（LRCS）-自1991年以来一直被称为国际红十字与红新月会联盟（IFRC）-尽管代表着世界上最大的志愿者网络，并且是红十字运动的组成部分，但它几乎没有受到任何历史关注。第一次世界大战后，由美国，英国，法国，意大利和日本的国家红十字会组成的LRCS渴望在和平时期带头促进全球公共卫生和福利。本文通过集合思维和外部性，发展能力，内部机制，开放系统和欲望的五个集合要素，试图理解LRCS的长寿和弹性。在这样做，