The Responsibility to Protect norm cluster and the challenge of atrocity prevention

An analysis of the European Union’s strategy in Myanmar

Bibliographic Data

ID7770928
AuthorsEglantine Staunton (0000-0002-1113-830X, Australian National University, corresponding author), Jason Ralph (0000-0002-8402-678X, University of Leeds, UK; University of Queensland, Australia)
Year2020
Volume26
Issue3
Pages660-686
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of International Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-0661 • E-ISSN: 1460-3713
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1354066119883001
OpenAlexW2980352854
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited34

This article investigates the complex relationship between atrocity prevention and other related – yet distinct – norms of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) norm cluster. It analyses how this cluster operates to help states, and other actors, properly discharge their responsibility. Central to the analysis is the realisation that abstractly aligned norms can clash in practice. Based on an extensive analysis of the 67 European Union (EU) documents and statements referring to R2P, and drawing on elite interviews with EU diplomats, we find that atrocity prevention has been ‘grafted’ onto the EU’s other normative commitments – including conflict resolution and democracy promotion – without sufficient acknowledgement of the cluster’s complexity and the need to prioritise atrocity prevention vis-à-vis these other linked norms. We ask whether this framing not only filtered but also diluted the normative power of atrocity prevention, leading to policies that manifestly failed to prevent the genocide that occurred in Myanmar from 2017. We find that the grafting of atrocity prevention onto related yet distinct norms contributed to an underestimation of the threat of genocide and a misplaced faith in the ability of democratic transition to prevent atrocity. However, we also find that factors unrelated to the normative framing of R2P influenced the EU’s willingness and ability to respond to atrocity crimes that occurred in the lead up to the genocide that began in 2017. The article contributes to our understanding of the as yet unstated normative implication of clustering norms and the EU’s implementation of R2P

Democracy · Democracy promotion · Democratization · Economics · European union · Genocide · International law · International trade · Law and economics · Normative · Political science · Politics · Responsibility to Protect · Sociology · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub