Humanitarianism with a Sovereign Face: UNHCR in the Global Undertow Michael Barnett University ofWisconsin This article examines the global forces that are responsible for the trans? formation of the meaning and practice of UNHCR's humanitarianism, and asks whether a transformation that enables the organization to become more deeply involved in the internal affairs of states is welcome or worrisome. I open by reviewing the changing relationship between multilateralism, sovereignty, and humanitarianism, and link that concep? tual discussion to the international refugee regime. I then argue that the combination of state pressures and the normative principle of popular sovereignty enabled a more political and pragmatic UNHCR to widen its activities under the humanitarian banner and to become more deeply involved in the circumstances in the refugee-producing country. This expanding humanitarian umbrella, I suggest, might be a stealth agent for a policy of containment and a threat to refugee rights. This possibility is suggested by recent debates over the category of internally displaced peo? ples; the decided preference for repatriation; and UNHCR's involvement in reintegration activities. These developments generate the worrisome possibility that a more pragmatic UNHCR is potentially (though unwit? tingly) implicated in a system of containment. I conclude by reflecting on UNHCR's role in global politics and the dangers of a sovereignty-led humanitarianism. During the Cold War, UN organizations routinely presented themselves as "apolitical" and "humanitarian" as a signal to states that they understood their place and recognized sovereignty's canon of noninterference. Beginning in the mid-1980s and accelerating after the end of the Cold War, however, UN organizations became more deeply involved in the domestic affairs of states. The United Nations has increased its activities in the areas of women's rights and human rights. UN peacekeeping began trying to save "failed states" and help with the difficult transition from civil war to civil peace. And UNHCR became increasingly active in the area of refugee reintegration and erasing the "root causes" of refugee flight. UN organizations that once knew their place in the sovereign system of states and bundled their humanitarianism to the principle of noninterference were now venturing beyond the border's edge ? 2001 by the Center for Migration Studies ofNewYork. All rights reserved. 0198-9183/00/3501.01332 244 IMR Volume 35 Number 1 (Spring 2001): 244-277