Political Science

Reconstructing the responsibility to protect: From humanitarian intervention to human security

Document Type

Book

Abstract

This book revisits and interrogates the evolution of the Responsibility to Protect in search of the root cause of R2P's failure to date. Employing a critical constructivist lens throughout, the book locates the origin of that apparent failure in the close association of R2P with humanitarian intervention. In returning to the ideational underpinnings and broader ambitions of R2P's architects, the analysis reveals that reducing R2P to little more than a "solution" to the long-standing problem(s) confronting humanitarian intervention betrayed its fundamental purpose: advancing a new norm of, and for, human security provision. Employing a modified version of the norm life-cycle model as a diagnostic tool, the author uncovers the underlying dynamics of R2P's normative stagnation over the past two decades. The book concludes with a prescriptive remedy in the form of a two-part blueprint for reconstructing and reanimating R2P's normative agenda for an international society confronted by mounting and existential threats to humanity. This book will be of much interest to scholars and students of the Responsibility to Protect, human rights, security studies, and international relations in general.

Publication Title

Reconstructing the responsibility to protect: From humanitarian intervention to human security

Publication Date

2024

First Page

1

Last Page

164

ISBN

9781315105628

DOI

10.4324/9781315105628

Keywords

human rights, security studies, international relations

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