Hollow Norms and the Responsibility to Protect
This book explains why there is a pronounced disjuncture between R2P's habitual invocation and its actual influence, and why it will not make the transformative progress its proponents claim. Rather than disputing that R2P is a norm, or declaring th
- PDF / 2,671,019 Bytes
- 260 Pages / 433.701 x 612.283 pts Page_size
- 58 Downloads / 214 Views
Responsibility to Protect
Aidan Hehir
Hollow Norms and the Responsibility to Protect “The Responsibility to Protect continues to gain rhetorical international support, at the same time that human rights are being increasingly compromised and atrocities across the world abound. Aidan Hehir not only calls out this radical juxtaposition, he explains exactly how it has come to pass. As a hollow, malleable norm that has been co-opted for strategic purposes by states, R2P has actually entrenched more conservative outcomes than its progressive advocates acknowledge. Hehir’s is a trenchant, organized, sharp, accessible, and ultimately devastating argument for the enormous gap between R2P celebratory invocation, and its (in)efficacy.” —Brent Steel, Professor, University of Utah, USA “Hollow Norms and the Responsibility to Protect is an urgent call to re-evaluate triumphalism about the efficacy of the Responsibility to Protect norm. Hehir, one of the world’s leading scholars of the history, politics and impact of R2P, demonstrates that frequent invocation of R2P does not lead to effective action in limiting the kinds of suffering the norm was established to confront. The book treats R2P with great subtlety, advancing a compelling argument that Pillars 1 and 2 are almost bound to fail due to the nature of the regimes which tend to commit mass atrocities, thus the international community’s focus on these pillars at the expense of Pillar 3 is doomed to fail. The analysis in the book is of wide relevance to international relations as Hehir argues that norms in general can be “hollow” in so far as they fail to impel states to behave in accordance with them even while attracting high levels of consensus and rhetorical commitment. This book challenges a great deal of contemporary wisdom on humanitarianism, but is motivated by Hehir’s commitment to human rights, meaning the analysis is humane and eventually optimistic as well as excoria ting of state and civil society failures. An essential read for all who wonder how so much suffering can exist in a world so full of norms which should compel states to protect populations.” —Kirsten Ainley, Assistant Professor, LSE, UK “In his provocative book, Aidan Hehir boldly declares that ‘R2P cannot work.’ He measures the claims that the responsibility to protect has made ‘progress’ against the reality of declining protection of human rights globally, and finds the former wanting. While his conclusions will be challenging - indeed dismaying - to supporters of greater protection of human rights, his ‘relentless scepticism’ is essential reading for those who wish to realistically chart a way forward to better human rights protection and the prevention of atrocities around the world.” —Kurt Mills, Professor, University of Dundee, UK
“Hehir’s central contention that the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a ‘hollow norm’, the ‘inherent malleability’ of which makes it vulnerable to ‘mendacious invocation’ is a typically provocative argument from an author who has, more than most participants i
Data Loading...
