Since the beginning of the 1990s, military peacekeeping forces have increasingly intervened in countries in conflict, forcing a more direct engagement than ever before between the military, local populations and humanitarian agencies. Military movement into what has traditionally been 'humanitarian space', raises significant issues of principle, as well as policy and operational questions, for the entire international community, including governments, the military, humanitarian agencies and the UN. It is essential that these two roles - impartial humanitarian assistance as a response to an urgent and inalienable right, and peace operations with their inevitably partial and political mandates - are kept separate, argues a paper by the The Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN).