The People vs. the State: Reflections on UN Authority, US Power and the Responsibility to Protect

Abstract

Responsibility to Protect (R2P) aims to convert international conscience into timely and decisive collective action to rescue vulnerable communities. The choice is not whether international interventions will take place but where, when, how and under whose authority. Given the nature and victims of modern armed conflict, protection of civilians and populations at risk of mass atrocities is a core United Nations imperative. But while the UN has international authority, it lacks military power. Although its military might well have unmatched global reach, the United States acting unilaterally lacks international authority. This publication argues that progress towards good international society requires that force be harnessed to authority as the R2P moves from a universally validated principle to a routinely actionable norm. Thakur argues that our choice in today's real world, with a universal human rights norm and an internationalized human conscience, is not whether international interventions will take place but where, when, how, and under whose authority. Given the nature and victims of modern armed conflict, protection of civilians and populations at risk of mass atrocities is a core international imperative. Progress toward the good international society requires that force be harnessed to UN authority as the Responsibility to Protect moves from a universally validated principle to a routinely actionable norm.