[Humanitarian action: its requirements, its stakes]

Humanitarian action is developing in an increasingly changing and troubled world context. Organizations are subject to more and more complex requirements due to ethical, legal, technical, financial, media-related, and political considerations. They must deal with higher and higher stakes such as the emergency-development trade-off, the need for professionalization, and the revival of governmental humanitarian action. The articles in this special issue deal with all these topics and more. In most cases the authors are players in the field of humanitarian action from non-governmental, intergovernmental, international and national organizations. There are also academics, politicians, and civilians.