Distribution and Emergency*

There is not enough international aid available to assist everyone whose governments have failed to protect them from serious harm or provide them with access to basic resources. How the aid that is available is distributed is therefore a matter of life and death for millions of people. Political theorists and philosophers have tended to focus on prior questions, such as what obligations wealthy individuals and groups have to assist distant others, and how international aid compares to other strategies for improving human welfare. Yet, especially when considered from the perspective of a person who is denied aid for a bad reason, how international aid is distributed is as weighty as these other concerns.