Introduction: The Responsibility to Protect after the Arab Spring

Abstract

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has become the pre-eminent framework for discussing humanitarian intervention and issues related to human rights protection generally. Its origins lie in the 2001 report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), which first proposed the notion of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’. Its adoption at the 2005 United Nations (UN) World Summit, with over 160 heads of state in attendance, has led to numerous inter-disciplinary debates within academia and beyond. The R2P has often been controversial, but the eruption of the ‘Arab Spring’ in late 2010 has constituted the concept’s most exacting test and prompted a further spike in interest in both its efficacy and desirability. The articles in this special issue assess the R2P in light of the events during, and debates surrounding, the Arab Spring. Together, they constitute a uniquely focused assessment of this significant and influential doctrine. This introduction will first consider in more detail the importance of the R2P for the Arab Spring, before going on to consider, conversely, the importance of the Arab Spring for the R2P. It will then outline the focus of the special issue and the two central questions with which it is concerned. Finally, it will provide an overview of the debate in the articles and how they address the two central questions.