The Responsibility to Protect: Rhetoric, Reality and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention

ISBN-13: 9780230289185 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 312 str.

Aidan Hehir

Opis

The notion of a responsibility to protect (R2P) has come to dominate debates about humanitarian intervention. This important new book provides a systematic assessment of its evolution and gives a careful critique of its limits in mapping out alternative avenues for the prevention of - and responses to - humanitarian crises.

Spis treści

Introduction: Rhetoric and Reality PART I: THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT: SOUND AND FURY?  The Evolution of the Responsibility to Protect  The Responsibility to Protect, Authority and International Law  Prevention: The Last Refuge of the Unimaginative?  Political Will and Non-Intervention PART II: BEYONE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT  In Defence of Humanitarian Intervention and the Potential of International Law Understanding the Tension between Sovereignty and Intervention Grasping the Nettle: The Parameters of Viable Reform Conclusion: the Future of Humanitarian Intervention.

O autorze

AIDAN HEHIR Director of the Security and International Relations Programme at the University of Westminster, UK. His books include Kosovo, Intervention and State building (Routledge, 2010), Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); Humanitarian Intervention After Kosovo (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)andState Building: Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2007 & 2009).

Blurb

From Kosovo to Libya, humanitarian intervention is seldom out of the news. While the 'Responsibility to Protect' (R2P) has often been at the centre of these debates, its effectiveness as a means of preventing and resolving mass atrocities is disputed.

The book provides a systematic overview of the theory and practice of R2P, and examines how the doctrine has been interpreted and implemented since it was first conceived. Aidan Hehir argues that, while it has undeniably raised international consciousness regarding humanitarian intervention, R2P has not significantly improved the international response to large-scale intra-state crises.

Hehir advances an alternative strategy involving a strengthening of international law – based around obligations rather than discretionary rights – and major structural reform to the United Nations. Broad-ranging and insightful, this innovative text provides a clear grasp of the key issues and debates surrounding humanitarian intervention and advances a major new critique of R2P.