R2P after Libya and Syria: Engaging Emerging Powers

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. UN General Assembly, 63rd Session, Implementing the Responsibility to Protect, A/63/677, (New York: United Nations, January 12, 2009), page 9, paragraph 11(c), http://www.unrol.org/files/SG_reportA_63_677_en.pdf. 2. UN General Assembly, 63rd Session, Implementing the Responsibility to Protect, A/63/677, (New York: United Nations, January 12, 2009), page 25, paragraph 56. 3. See Sung Won Kim, David P. Fidler, and Sumit Ganguly, “Eastphalia Rising? Asian Influence and the Fate of Human Security,” World Policy Journal 26, no. 2 (2009): pages 53–64, http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1114&context=facpub. 4. Mohamed Sahnoun, “Africa: Uphold Continent's Contribution to Human Rights, Urges Top Diplomat,” allAfrica.com, July 21, 2009, http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200907210549.html. For another African perspective that also strongly supports R2P, see Samuel Atuobi, “The Responsibility to Protect: The Time to Act is Now,” KAIPTC Policy Brief no. 1, July, 2009, http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/component/content/article/35-r2pcs-topics/2633-kaiptc-policy-brief-the-responsibility-to-protect-the-time-to-act-is-now. 5. See World Federalist Movement, Global Consultative Roundtables on the Responsibility to Protect: Civil Society Perspectives and Recommendations for Action, Interim Report, (New York: WFM, January 2009):8. 6. Quoted in Stanley Wolpert, A New History of India, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977): 66–67. 7. See Ethics & International Affairs 25, no. 3 (Cambridge University Press, Fall 2011), http://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/fall-2011-issue-25-3/. 8. See Andrew Mack et al., Human Security Report 2005, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 9. See Michael J. Hogan, A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); Seth G. Jones, Olga Oliker, Peter Chalk, C. Christine Fair, Rollie Lal, and James Dobbins, Securing Tyrants or Fostering Reform? U.S. Internal Security Assistance to Repressive and Transitioning Regimes, (Santa Monica CA: Rand, 2006); Norrin M. Ripsman and T. V. Paul, Globalization and the National Security State, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); Douglas C. Stuart, Creating the National Security State: A History of the Law That Transformed America, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008); and Gary Wills, Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State, (London: Penguin, 2010). 10. For an account of the UN's transformation since 1945, see Ramesh Thakur, The United Nations, Peace and Security: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). 11. See Gerrit W. Gong, The “Standard” of Civilization in International Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984). 12. Albrecht Schnabel and Ramesh Thakur, eds., Kosovo and the Challenge of Humanitarian Intervention: Selective Indignation, Collective Action, and International Citizenship (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2000). 13. International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The Responsibility to Protect (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre for ICISS, 2001), http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Resources/Publications/Pages/IDRCBookDetails.aspx?PublicationID=240. See also Spencer Zifcak, United Nations Reform: Heading North or South? (London: Routledge, 2009). 14. See, for example, the entry under “Humanitarian bombing” in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_bombing. 15. These are drawn from the author's notes from the various meetings. The reports are as follows: Adonia Ayebare, “Regional Perspectives on Sovereignty and Intervention,” discussion paper prepared for the ICISS Round Table Consultation, Maputo, March 10, 2001; Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, “Rapporteur's Report, ICISS Round Table Consultation, Maputo, March 10, 2001”; Luis Bitencourt, “Rapporteur's Report, ICISS Round Table Consultation, Santiago, May 4, 2001”; Ahmed T. Khalil, “Rapporteur's Report, ICISS Round Table Consultation, Cairo, May 21, 2001”; Omran el-Shafie, “Intervention and State Sovereignty,” discussion paper for the ICISS Round Table consultation in Cairo, May 21, 2001; Sripapha Petcharamesree, “Rapporteur's Report, ICISS Round Table Consultation, New Delhi, June 10, 2001”; and unattributed, “Rapporteur's Report, ICISS Round Table Consultation, Beijing, June 14, 2001.” 16. For a discussion of the moral hazard argument, see Alan J. Kuperman, “The Moral Hazard of Humanitarian Intervention: Lessons from the Balkans,” International Studies Quarterly 52, no. 1 (March 2008):49–80. 17. These were the argument advanced by various participants during the ICISS outreach consultations; they do not necessarily reflect the author's views. 18. See Jorge Heine, “The responsibility to protect: Humanitarian intervention and the principle of non-intervention in the Americas,” in Ramesh Thakur, Andrew F. Cooper, and John English, eds., International Commissions and the Power of Ideas. (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2005): pages 221–45. 19. Bitencourt, “Rapporteur's Report.” 20. African Union, “Constitutive Act,” (Lomé, Togo, July 11, 2000), http://www.au.int/en/about/constitutive_act. 21. Dan Kuwali, “The end of humanitarian intervention: Evaluation of the African Union's right of intervention,” African Journal of Conflict Resolution 9, no. 1 (2009): page 41. 22. Ayebare, “Regional Perspectives on Sovereignty and Intervention.” 23. International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The Responsibility to Protect; High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, A more secure world: our shared responsibility (New York: United Nations, December 2004), A/59/565; United Nations, In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all, Report of the Secretary-General, A/59/2005, (New York, United Nations, March 21, 2005). 24. “Full text of China's Position Paper UN Reforms,” Part III.1, Xinhua, June 7, 2005, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-06/08/content_3056817_3.htm. 25. UN General Assembly Resolution, 2005 World Summit Outcome, A/RES/60/1, (New York: United Nations, October 24, 2005): paragraphs 138-40. 26. UN General Assembly, Implementing the Responsibility to Protect; UN General Assembly, 64th Session, Early Warning, Assessment, and the Responsibility to Protect, A/64/864, (New York: United Nations, July 14, 2010); UN General Assembly, 65th Session, The Role of Regional and Subregional Arrangements in Implementing the Responsibility to Protect, A/65/877-S/2011/393, (New York: United Nations, June 28, 2011); UN General Assembly, 66th Session, Timely and Decisive Response, A/66/874–S/2012/578, (New York: United Nations, July 25, 2012). 27. Cristina Badescu, and Thomas G. Weiss, “Misrepresenting R2P and Advancing Norms: An Alternative Spiral?” International Studies Perspectives 11, no. 4 (2010): pages 354–74. 28. Walter Kemp, Vesselin Popovski, and Ramesh Thakur, eds., Blood and Borders: The Responsibility to Protect and the Problem of the Kin-State, (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2011). 29. See Catherine Philp, “Sri Lanka forces West to retreat over ‘war crimes’ with victory at UN,” The Times, May 28, 2009. https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6375044.ece?. 30. Quoted in “UN says 6,500 civilians have been killed in Sri Lankan violence,” The Telegraph, April 24, 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/srilanka/5211742/UN-says-6500-civilians-have-been-killed-in-Sri-Lankan-violence.html; and “India to Sri Lanka: killings of Tamil civilians must stop,” Sindh Today, April 22, 2009, http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/crises/177-crisis-in-sri-lanka/2324-india-to-sri-lanka-killings-of-tamil-civilians-must-stop. 31. UN Security Council, “Security Council Open Debate on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict,” S/PV.5577, Verbatim Record, (New York: United Nations, December 4, 2006): page 8; quoted in Sarah Teitt, “Assessing Polemics, Principles and Practices: China and the Responsibility to Protect,” Global Responsibility to Protect 1, no. 2 (2009): 216. 32. UN General Assembly, Implementing the Responsibility to Protect. Paragraph 67. 33. “Look across Africa and see the major changes that are happening,” Time, July 13, 2009, http://www.time.com/magazine/article/0,9171,1908312,00.html. 34. For a range of diverse opinions and perspectives on R2P and Libya, see the collection of essays in e-International Relations: Alex Stark, ed., The Responsibility to Protect: Challenges and Opportunities in Light of the Libyan Intervention, (eInternationalRelations: November 21, 2011), http://www.e-ir.info/2011/11/21/the-responsibility-to-protect-challenges-opportunities-in-light-of-the-libyan-intervention/comment-page-1/#comment-37850. 35. UN Security Council, Security Council resolution 1973 (2011) [on the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya], S/RES/1973(2011), (New York: United Nations, March 17, 2011), http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4d885fc42.html. 36. “Manmohan slams West for using force to change regimes,” Times of India, September 25, 2011, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-25/india/30200524_1_libya-sovereignty-countries. 37. See the debates in UN Security Council, 66th session, 6528th meeting, S/PV.6528, Official Record, (New York: United Nations, May 4, 2011): pages 7–10. On the BRICS grouping, see Andrew F. Cooper and Ramesh Thakur, “The BRICS in the New Global Economic Geography,” in Thomas G. Weiss and Rorden Wilkinson, eds., International Organizations and Global Governance (London: Routledge, forthcoming). 38. Joshua Foust, “Syria and the pernicious consequences of our Libya intervention,” Atlantic, February 6, 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/syria-and-the-pernicious-consequences-of-our-libya-intervention/252631. 39. Megan Price, Jeff Klingner, and Patrick Ball, Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in the Syrian Arab Republic (Geneva: Benetech Human Rights Program, January 2, 2013); http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/SY/PreliminaryStatAnalysisKillingsInSyria.pdf. 40. UN Department of Public Information, “Security Council Fails to Adopt Draft Resolution Condemning Syria's Crackdown on Anti-Government Protestors, Owing to Veto by Russian Federation, China,” Press Release, SC/10403, New York, October 4, 2011, https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sc10403.doc.htm. 41. This ignored the November 2011 report of the UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent commission of the significant asymmetry of responsibility for the violence in Syria; UN Human Rights Council, “Report of the Independent International Commission on the Syrian Arab Republic,” A/HRC/S-17/2/Add.1, November 23, 2011, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/SY/A.HRC.S-17.2.Add.1_en.pdf. 42. UN Security Council, 66th session, 6617th meeting , S/PV.6627, (New York: United Nations, October 4, 2011): pages 6–7, remarks by Hardeep Singh Puri; and page 11, remarks by Baso Sangqu. See also UN Security Council, 66th session, 6524th meeting, S/PV.6524, remarks by Hardeep Singh Puri, (New York:United Nations, April 27, 2011): page 8. 43. UN Security Council, 66th session, 6617th meeting , S/PV.6627, (New York: United Nations, October 4, 2011): pages 6–7, remarks by Hardeep Singh Puri; and page 11, remarks by Baso Sangqu. See also UN Security Council, 66th session, 6524th meeting, S/PV.6524, remarks by Hardeep Singh Puri, (New York:United Nations, April 27, 2011): page 8. See also Spencer Zifcak, “The Responsibility to Protect after Libya and Syria,” Melbourne Journal of International Law 13, no. 1 (2012): 59–93. 44. See Ramesh Thakur, “To Stop Iran Getting the Bomb, Must We Learn to Live with Its Nuclear Capability?” Strategic Analysis 36, no. 2, (March 2012): 328–34. 45. Thakur, Ramesh. Personal conversation with retired senior Indian ambassador in Canberra, Australia, July 2012. 46. Chinmaya R. Gharekhan, “A civil war set to escalate,” The Hindu, November 26, 2012. A retired senior ambassador and a former UN Under-Secretary-General, Gharekhan can be assumed to reflect the dominant viewpoint of the Indian foreign policy establishment. 47. UN Security Council, “Responsibility while Protecting: Elements for the Development and Promotion of a Concept,” A/66/551, S/2011/701, (New York: United Nations, November 11, 2011). 48. Amitav Acharya, “Can Asia lead? Power Ambitions and Global Governance in the Twenty-first Century,” International Affairs 87, no. 4, (2011): 851–69. 49. See Lori Fisler Damrosch, “The inevitability of selective response? Principles to guide urgent international action,” in Schnabel, and Thakur, eds., Kosovo and the Challenge of Humanitarian Intervention, pages 405–19. Additional informationNotes on contributorsRamesh ThakurRamesh Thakur is Professor of International Relations at Australian National University and a former United Nations Assistant Secretary–General. He was a Commissioner and author of the Responsibility to Protect report in 2001