The introduction argues that postwar international humanitarianism encompasses continuities and profound changes with respect to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Western humanitarianism. In the Near East and more broadly speaking in the Balkans and ex-Ottoman lands, international humanitarianism was arrogant, provincial, and Promethean. Western humanitarianism was redemptive and built upon colonial and civilizational postures. The book claims that the First World War was a foundational moment for postwar humanitarianism, but the latter, at least in the Near East, connected with missionaries and protodevelopment projects.