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“R2P is now a globally accepted norm, but universally effective atrocity prevention in practice remains a battle barely half-won. This is the guide to the task ahead the world has been waiting for. The richness and precision of Luck's and Bellamy's  analysis should satisfy the most demanding academics, while the sharp practicality of their prescriptions – supported by a wealth of real-world lessons-learned examples – will be of enormous help to policymakers. This is not just one for the bookshelves: it demands to be read.”

Gareth Evans, Co-Chair of International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty; former Australian Foreign Minister; President Emeritus of International Crisis Group; author of The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All.

In Memoriam

Richard H. Stanley (1932–2017)

The Responsibility to Protect:

From Promise to Practice

Alex J. Bellamy and Edward C. Luck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

polity


Acknowledgments

We have accumulated more than two decades of experience working with and on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). Along the way, we have acquired many debts of gratitude, both personal and professional. Chief amongst them are the debts owed to our long-suffering but endlessly patient and supportive families. They have endured our frequent absences and anxieties with grace and have listened far more than is healthy to our ramblings about the fortunes of atrocity prevention and machinations of the UN system. We would also like to thank all at Polity Press, and the anonymous reviewers, for their deep engagement with this project. Any errors of fact or interpretation are, of course, our own.


Introduction

Following more than a decade of decline, the incidence of atrocity crimes is again rising.1 The tide of forcibly displaced populations is at its highest level since the end of World War II. We need to do far better at preventing such horrific crimes and at protecting vulnerable populations. That is the purpose of the responsibility to protect (R2P), a set of rules and principles that has advanced far more rapidly in debating halls than in national and international policies and actions.2 This book is about how to turn the promise of R2P into practice.

The outpouring of books, articles, and reports about R2P has been nothing short of breathtaking. They have enriched our understanding of the etiology of mass murder, of its persistence throughout human history, and of the political hurdles to the successful implementation of R2P. As scholars and practitioners, however, we felt that something was missing, that the literature has been incomplete in four respects.

First, while the scholarly and analytical work on R2P as a normative innovation and political enterprise has been truly impressive, there has been far less attention to what R2P looks like in practice. The study of R2P has attracted throngs of acute observers and commentators, but, to date, only a handful of those engaged in the practice of prevention and protection have reflected publicly on their experiences. Practitioners, whether in governments, international organizations, or civil society, have been largely learning by doing, with little opportunity to reflect on what has and has not worked and why. There is a need, in our view, for a more systematic assessment of the strategies, doctrines, policies, procedures, mechanisms, and tools for preventing atrocities and protecting populations. So this book takes R2P out of the international meeting halls and academic debates that have defined its formative years and into the prevention and protection trenches.

Second, much of the existing literature lacks context. The evolution of R2P, either as principle or practice, has not occurred in a vacuum. It is one of many political priorities competing for space, resources, and attention. This becomes abundantly clear at the implementation stage. How R2P interacts with other conflict resolution, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, development, humanitarian, and human rights agendas – not to mention other security and counterterrorism imperatives – helps determine R2P's trajectory within the United Nations (UN) system, just as cost-risk-benefit calculations will continue to shape national responses. R2P has emerged and developed within an international system that is dynamic and at a historical moment in which that system is under stress, as geopolitics, non-state actors, and domestic political forces impose new strains on international institutions, principles, and commitments. R2P does not have the luxury of coming of age in propitious times.

Third, following a decade of normative development and maturation, R2P principles have now been tested in practice for a decade as well. The principles have reached a settled state, but their practice is still far down the learning curve. We believe, nevertheless, that there is now enough of a track record to begin to offer some rough assessments of what is or is not working. Some of our initial observations may seem counterintuitive – and quite debatable – but we believe that it is time to shift the conversation from theory to practice, from what sounds good to what might make a difference on the ground when lives are at stake.

Fourth, as scholars and practitioners, we have each spent some quality time on the practice side of the equation. Between us, we have amassed more than a quarter of a century working on, and with, R2P. From 2008 to 2012, as the United Nations’ first Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, Edward Luck was responsible for its conceptual, political, institutional, and operational development. He was the architect and drafter of the UN's three-pillar strategy for implementing R2P, crafted all of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's speeches and reports on R2P over those years, and advised the Secretary-General and member states on the application of R2P principles to numerous crisis situations. Alex Bellamy has directed the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect for much of the last decade and served as Secretary to the High Level Advisory Panel on R2P in Southeast Asia, a group chaired by former Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan. More recently, he has served as a consultant to the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and R2P, supporting the work of Luck's successors in the Special Adviser role, Jennifer Welsh and Ivan Simonovic. In that capacity, he contributed to Ban Ki-moon's 2013 and 2016 reports on R2P, and was responsible for drafting Antonio Guterres's first two reports on the subject.

Timing matters. The conceptual and normative struggle to design and advocate R2P is now largely behind us. Most of the operational challenges, however, remain before us. Unless these are overcome, the promise of R2P will turn to cynicism and despair. So this book calls for fresh thinking and a more comprehensive approach to the practice of R2P – one that moves beyond states and the UN to include the full range of actors that could play a role in inhibiting atrocity crimes and protecting vulnerable populations. It calls for situating efforts to implement R2P within the broader context of world politics, emphasizing the role played by regional arrangements, individual states, non-state groups and individuals, as well as the UN. It seeks to reorient the way we think about and study R2P away from the normative and conceptual (important as these are) and toward the practices of atrocity prevention and human protection necessary to make the principle a living reality for the world's most vulnerable populations.

Three key ideas run through the book. First is the notion of individual responsibility.3 Collective responsibility ultimately rests on individuals, whether on the ground or in state and international institutions. Prevention and protection depend on the choices people make. Yet initial articulations of R2P were too state centric, underplaying the role of individuals and groups. Second is the contention that the normative arguments about R2P have largely prevailed and that the priorities now are political and practical in nature. These political and practical tasks are made more difficult by the emergence of new challenges, such as violent extremist non-state armed groups, that were not foreseen by R2P's architects. Third is that R2P relates to different aspects of sovereignty in different ways. In practice, varying degrees of progress have been achieved vis-à-vis the different types of sovereignty. In particular, “decision-making sovereignty” – each state's right to determine its own course of action – has proven more central than some anticipated, whereas territorial sovereignty – long thought to be the principal obstacle to collective action against atrocities – has proven somewhat less critical to the implementation of R2P than expected.4

This book includes seven chapters and a conclusion. The first three chapters consider the origins and evolution of R2P against the backdrop of larger political and historical forces. Chapter 1 traces the conceptual and doctrinal development of R2P, beginning with its roots in the human security paradigm and the focus on vulnerable populations in the 1990s, seminal conceptual breakthroughs in the African experience, and the searing atrocities in Rwanda and Srebrenica. It compares the three iterations of R2P in 2001, 2005, and 2009 and addresses why the doctrinal expression of R2P needed to be adjusted along the path from promise to practice. Chapter 2 places R2P in a larger historical and political context, recognizing that the evolution and development of R2P have not occurred in a vacuum. Given the demanding dynamics of contemporary national and international politics, it emphasizes that R2P poses, at the very least, a responsibility to try. Chapter 3 looks at a series of challenges and opportunities that had not been anticipated at the inception of R2P in 2001. On the one hand, the rise of violent extremism and the increasing commission of atrocity crimes by non-state armed groups have required R2P to move beyond its initial state-centric formulation. On the other hand, there has been a growing recognition that regional, sub-regional, and national actors, including those from civil society and the private sector, can play critical roles in the implementation of R2P.

Chapters 4 through 6 address three critical operational challenges: building an international community of commitment and practice; getting states to live up to their primary responsibilities for preventing atrocity crimes and for protecting populations; and making the emphasis on prevention into a “lived reality.” Chapter 4 both details the efforts well underway at the United Nations to operationalize R2P and comments on the uneven, but often encouraging, initiatives at the regional and sub-regional levels. Chapter 5, in considering the essential, but often overlooked, work being pursued within countries to help them fulfill their primary responsibility for prevention and protection, finds some evidence that R2P is beginning to move well beyond international debating halls. In asserting the imperative of prevention, chapter 6 considers not only the place of prevention within the larger R2P project but also how actors ranging from peacekeepers to the International Criminal Court (ICC) can contribute to prevention objectives.

In chapter 7 and the Conclusion, the authors reflect on the lessons from R2P's first decade of implementation experience. Chapter 7 looks at eight cases, four that were relative failures (including two that predated R2P) and four that were relatively successful, in order to highlight some factors that appear to be associated with more negative or positive outcomes, respectively. Many of the findings, though decidedly tentative, are strikingly counterintuitive. They point the way for further, more rigorous, study. The Conclusion draws eight lessons from what it terms the third stage of R2P metamorphosis as it moves, ever so slowly, from aspirational principles to more consistent practice. Though this remains the challenge of our times, it finds that experience demonstrates that the key to making a difference is trying to make a difference.

Notes