Can we predict a humanitarian emergency?

Since the end of the Cold War, the humanitarian field has witnessed the emergence of new early warning systems, as well as the improvement of old ones, the purpose being to alert us of imminent humanitarian emergencies. To date, notwithstanding the proliferation of these instruments, their capacity to function effectively within the framework of humanitarianism is questionable. In discussing whether or not early warning systems can be made to function as planned, I argue that their current dysfunction within the humanitarian field is due the existence of a particular emergency imaginary.