Conclusion: After Failure

R2P was designed for pragmatists, not purists: to change state behaviour, not make new law or rewrite international relations theory. Since 2005 it has gathered momentum as a normative force, institutional catalyst, and framework for both preventive and reactive action. There are many grounds for optimism about its consolidation and further development in all these respects over the next decade and beyond: it is no longer possible for policy-makers to think and act as if mass atrocity crimes committed behind sovereign state borders are nobody else’s business. But, with dissension over the implementation of its Libyan intervention mandate in 2011 paralysing the Security Council’s subsequent response to atrocities in Syria, much remains to be done to recreate Council consensus over the hardest cases, those potentially requiring coercive military force. Some variation on the concept of ‘responsibility while protecting’, first advanced by Brazil in 2011, offers the most productive way forward.

In 2005, world leaders made a unanimous commitment to the responsibility to protect (R2P) principle. This Handbook provides a comprehensive assessment of the theory, politics, and practice of R2P, which interrogates its place in world politics and key international institutions, its impact and relationship with the most significant contemporary crises and its future trajectories. In so doing, this book provides a one-stop ‘shop’ for R2P focused around seven themes: ‘history’—examining the evolution of sovereignty, responsibility, and humanitarian intervention; ‘theory’—evaluating the key normative and conceptual puzzles provoked by R2P; ‘institutions’—examining the implementation of R2P through global institutions, especially the UN; ‘regional perspectives’—charting how different parts of the world relate to R2P; ‘cross-cutting themes’—focusing on its relationship with peacebuilding, peacekeeping, gender, protection, and other thematic issues; ‘cases’—exploring how R2P relates to the most pressing international problems; and ‘future trajectories’—where leading thinkers and practitioners reflect on the norm’s future.