Libya and the responsibility to protect

The application of the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) norm to Libya in 2011 was successful but controversial.

The application of the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) norm to Libya in 2011 was successful but controversial. For 350 years since Westphalia, sovereignty functioned as institutionalised indifference. International interventions in Kosovo and East Timor in 1999 broke that mould and provided the backdrop to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s search for a new norm. With Canada’s help, an international commission formulated the innovative principle of the responsibility to protect.

Author:

Ramesh Thakur is a Professor of International Relations, the Australian National University and Adjunct Professor, Institute of Ethics, Governance and Law, Griffith University.