Constructing the Responsibility to Protect: Contestation and Consolidation (Global Politics and the Responsibility to Protect)

"This volume examines the ongoing construction of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, elaborating on areas of both consolidation and contestation. The book focuses on how the R2P doctrine has been both consolidated and contested along three dimensions, regarding its meaning, status and application. The first focuses on how the R2P should be understood in a theoretical sense, exploring it through the lens of the International Relations constructivist approach and through different toolkits available to conventional and critical constructivists. The second focuses on how the R2P interacts with other normative frameworks, and how this interaction can lead to a range of effects from mutual reinforcement and co-evolution through to unanticipated feedback that can undermine consensus and flexibility. The third focuses on how key state actors - including the United States, China, and Russia - understand, use, and contest the R2P. Together, the book's chapters demonstrate that broad aspects of the R2P are consolidated in the sense that they are accepted by states even while other, specific aspects, remain subject to contestation in practice and in policy. This book will be of much interest to students of the R2P, human rights, peace studies and international relations"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 List of Contributors 9 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction: Consolidation and contestation of the Responsibility to Protect 14 Introduction 14 The Responsibility to Protect: realization or retreat? 14 The nature of the R2P 22 Norm emergence 24 R2P in conjunction with other norms, regimes and agendas 29 Structure of the book 30 Notes 34 References 35 Chapter 1: Contestation, norms and the Responsibility to Protect as a regime 41 Introduction 41 Regime theory, norms and resilience 43 The Responsibility to Protect as a regime 46 The four atrocity crimes 47 Contestations around the role of the UN Security Council 50 The Security Council and the response to chemical weapons use in Syria 52 Conclusion 56 Notes 57 References 59 Chapter 2: R2P and the benefits of norm ambiguity 63 Introduction 63 Theoretical framework: from norm life cycle to norm feedback loop 64 Rethinking the norm life cycle: the costs of clarity 64 Toward a norm feedback loop: ambiguity, consensus and flexible adjustment 66 The ambiguity of R2P: norm feedback over Rwanda, Iraq and Libya 68 The 1990s: from Rwanda to the ICISS 69 The 2000s: from Iraq to the World Summit 71 Into the 2010s: from Libya to PSD-10 73 Conclusion: theoretical, historical and policy implications 76 Notes 77 References 78 Chapter 3: Telling the story of R2P: The emplotment of R2P in the UN Security Council’s debates on Libya 82 Introduction 82 Narrating realities: story, plot and emplotment in context 84 Emplotting R2P: three public narratives on responsible action 85 ICISS and the story of three responsibilities 86 The 2005 World Summit and the story of two chapters 87 Ban Ki-moon and the story of the three pillars of R2P 88 Comparing the public narratives on R2P 90 Diplomatic storytelling as a situated practice: the consolidation and contestation of R2P inside the UNSC 91 Telling the story of R2P and Libya 93 States who draw on one public narrative: France, Lebanon, and the USA 94 States who combine creatively: Germany, Russia, Brazil and the UK 95 States who draw on a national narrative: India and China 96 Conclusion 97 Acknowledgments 98 Notes 98 References 99 Chapter 4: The Responsibility to Protect and the Protection of Civilians in UN peace operations: Interaction, feedback and co-evolution 102 Introduction 102 The R2P, POC in armed conflict and POC in peace operations 104 Challenges, alteration, reinterpretations and feedback effects 106 The early years – 1999–2009 106 The institutionalizing years – 2009–2011 107 The blow-back years – 2012–2015 110 The reflective/resurgent years – 2015 → 113 Discussion: feedback effects and implications 115 Operationalization 115 Consent 116 State-centrism 117 Accountability 117 Summary 118 Conclusion 119 Acknowledgment 120 Notes 120 References 122 Chapter 5: R2P and WPS: Operationalizing prevention from alignment 126 Introduction 126 Two normative agendas with one prevention agenda: R2P and WPS 127 R2P and WPS prevention intersections 128 R2P 128 WPS 131 Human rights alignment 133 Prevention of human rights violations as an R2P-WPS prevention measure: the Nepal case 134 Conclusion 138 Acknowledgements 139 References 139 Chapter 6: Strange bedfellows: Terrorism/counter-terrorism and the Responsibility to Protect 142 Introduction 142 Norm regimes 142 Normative congruencies between counter-terrorism and R2P 146 The sovereign state as first responder 146 International obligations 147 Case studies 148 Counter-terrorism as an atrocity crime – the state response of Sri Lanka 149 Terrorism as an atrocity crime by non-state armed groups – the case of the Islamic State 152 Normative alignment 154 Conclusion 155 Notes 156 References 157 Chapter 7: Resistance and accommodation in China’s approach toward R2P 162 Introduction 162 China’s R2P ‘minimalism’ 163 China’s R2P contestation 166 China’s proactive response to atrocity situations 171 Conclusion: China and the future of R2P 176 Notes 177 References 177 Chapter 8: Russia and the R2P: Norm entrepreneur, anti-preneur, or violator? 181 Introduction1 181 Theoretical contentions of the R2P doctrine 182 Russian identity and international order 185 Russia as a great power 186 Sovereignty and sovereign equality 187 Russia’s privileged interests and the issue of intervention 190 Conclusion 193 Notes 194 References 197 Index 200