This volume takes a humanitarian perspective to protection in conflicts and seeks to introduce the what and the how of doing protection work, and the impact of the new humanitarian politics on its practice. Humanitarian protection lies at the heart of the new prominence of humanitarian action: 'protection of civilians' is now used by different actors to mean both the traditional use of international law to ensure persons are protected, and military intervention to protect civilians from their own state. Literature around the 'new humanitarianism' and the 'Responsibility to Protect' (R2P) has abounded as the political use of protection narratives has driven interventions in a number of states, and with a range of outcomes.

The work of humanitarian protection has largely continued, in conflict, natural disaster and complex emergencies, with humanitarians risking their lives to ensure the rights and dignity of the vulnerable. Such work has however inspired almost no literature, academic or otherwise. Even as becoming a humanitarian worker has become a career path facilitated by a plethora of graduate courses, there is a dearth of sources of information, informed by both theory and practice, that can navigate the new politics of humanitarian action.