The responsibility to protect and its limits: Transnational intervention in The Honourable Woman

Abstract

The horrors of September 11, 2001 gave us two powerful notions: international terrorism as a form of foreign intervention, on one hand, and the phrase ‘responsibility to protect’, on the other. But ‘responsibility to protect’ is a slippery ethical notion that can easily fall into interventionism, the latter linked with forms of terrorism. Thus, it is not by chance that TV shows and films revolving around important, powerful CEO decisions impacting upon the entire world have flourished like never before since September 11. One of the most important shows about global responsibility and shadowy conspiracies has been The Honourable Woman (2014), which revolves about a woman and a company trying their best to ensure global betterment. However, as a British miniseries, it cannot escape the implicit topic of intervention. The conspiracy here illustrates current fears about global interventionism and the state responsibility to protect: the possibility of the latter as a mere excuse for personal gain. Behind the façade of ‘responsibility to protect’ lies the possibility of a global conspiracy to only want to augment capitalist power.