The Suffering of Syria and the Failure of the Responsibility to Protect

The struggle between sovereignty and humanitarian intervention remains one of the fundamental controversies in international politics. The 1648 Treaty of Westphalia helped to bring peace to much of the world through the creation and realisation of national sovereignty, however a growing global consciousness began to resist against this. The ratification of the responsibility to protect (R2P) doctrine in 2005 by the UN General Assembly set the humanitarian interventionist pendulum in motion. Providing a mechanism to facilitate foreign intervention in a sovereign state in order to protect human welfare, the R2P doctrine indicated a shark contrast with the past. Although proving successful in many cases, this doctrine has been pushed to its limits in Libya and Syria. Through content and discourse analysis this paper assesses the impact of the Libyan and Syrian crisis on the R2P doctrine, and as a result questions the feasibility and viability of the doctrine. R2P references in key UN...Show moreThe struggle between sovereignty and humanitarian intervention remains one of the fundamental controversies in international politics. The 1648 Treaty of Westphalia helped to bring peace to much of the world through the creation and realisation of national sovereignty, however a growing global consciousness began to resist against this. The ratification of the responsibility to protect (R2P) doctrine in 2005 by the UN General Assembly set the humanitarian interventionist pendulum in motion. Providing a mechanism to facilitate foreign intervention in a sovereign state in order to protect human welfare, the R2P doctrine indicated a shark contrast with the past. Although proving successful in many cases, this doctrine has been pushed to its limits in Libya and Syria. Through content and discourse analysis this paper assesses the impact of the Libyan and Syrian crisis on the R2P doctrine, and as a result questions the feasibility and viability of the doctrine. R2P references in key UN documents show that R2P fails to positively influence decision making in the highest echelons of international diplomacy, while the comments of state representatives show that NATO’s un-mandated regime change in Libya has infected the doctrine. This infection has been so great that in its current form, R2P no-longer has a place in facilitating humanitarian intervention.Show less

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The Suffering of Syria and the Failure of the Responsibility to Protect