scholarly journals France and the responsibility to protect: a tale of two norms

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-387
Author(s):  
Eglantine Staunton

Although France has been a key actor of human protection since the 1980s, the existing literature often adopts an Anglo-Saxon focus or concentrates on states which have been reluctant to see international norms of human protection develop. As a consequence, it overlooks France’s central role in the development of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), which can be seen as the leading norm of human protection today. In turn, the growing influence R2P has had on France’s conception and practice of human protection – and on its foreign policy more generally – remains unexplored. This article is the first of its kind to correct these oversights by examining France’s relationship to R2P from its emergence till date. It argues that to do so, we need to analyse the evolving relationship of two interconnected – yet distinct – norms: France’s domestic norm of human protection on the one hand, and the international norm of R2P on the other. It builds on the constructivist literature to offer a theoretical framework that allows the study of this tale of two norms and draws upon elite interviews of key actors such as Gareth Evans and Bernard Kouchner to provide a unique understanding of France’s relationship to R2P. Through this tale of two norms, the article reshapes our understanding of both R2P and France’s past and current foreign policy. In addition, it contributes to the literature on norm diffusion, in particular by deepening our understanding of how domestic and international norms interplay.

1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 541 ◽  
Author(s):  
JR Ottaway ◽  
R Carrick ◽  
MD Murray

Aspects of the reproductive ecology of silver gulls, Larus novaehollandiae Stephens, were studied in South Australia during 1968-78. Some 15 950 pulli and 597 breeding adults were banded on 15 colonies, using numbered and coloured leg bands designed for identification of free-living individuals without the necessity of recapture. Nine colonies were on marine islands, four were on lacustrine islands, one was on a port breakwater, and one was on causeways in a saltworks complex. Fidelity to colony, mate and nest-site, and timing of breeding are considered in detail. The spatial relationship of adult and immature gulls, on the colony studied in greatest detail, and reproductive longevity of the gulls are also discussed. The gulls nested from June to December inclusive, although the commencement and length of breeding seasons varied between colonies and between years. There was a marked absence of 1-year-old gulls on breeding colonies. Of 3530 pulli banded on the major study colony, Penguin Island (37�30''S., 140�01''E.) at Beachport, in 1968, 950 were known to be alive in the 1970 breeding season. Almost 40% of these 2-year-olds were seen on breeding colonies, and mostly on the natal colony; however, only 0.3% were known to raise pulli, and a further 0.7% to produce eggs. Significant breeding activity therefore did not commence until the end of the third year, or later. The older, previously established breeders on Penguin Island were significantly more successful, and had significantly earlier laying dates, than younger birds. Potential reproductive longevity appears to be at least 11 breeding seasons. In this study, silver gulls showed considerably less fidelity to nest-sites and colonies than has been suggested previously. Significant shifts of nest-site, or change of colony, with or without the previous mate, were not uncommon. Of gulls banded on nests as established breeding aduls, 7-44% of gulls found breeding in subsequent years were at colonies other than the one where banded. In 1970, over 80% of 2-year-old gulls recorded present on any colony were only recorded on the natal one. Of the pulli banded on Penguin Island in 1968 and 1969 and later found actually nesting or breeding, 18% were recorded on other colonies. A small percentage of gulls were seen to have high fidelity to nest-site and to mate over 3 or 4 seasons, but it is suggested that, for some colonies, over 50% of silver gulls which eventually breed may do so at colonies other than natal. Significant spatial separation was found on Penguin Island between areas generally occupied by established breeders, which were known to be at least 4-year-olds, and by the 2-year-olds. The older birds may select and hold the territories most suitable for nesting, where vegetation or topography minimise intraspecific aggression which often leads to high mortality rates of eggs and pulli, and assist protection of eggs and pulli from extreme weather. Non-breeding gulls associating with the colonies occasionally move into the nesting areas, but are aggressively forced away and tend to congregate on the periphery of the colony or on exposed areas not suitable for successful breeding.


Author(s):  
Eyal Regev

This concluding chapter discusses two general issues that build on the previous chapters, namely, the relationship of the early Christians to Judaism and the implications of comprehending the Jerusalem Temple in the first century. Early Christian authors draw heavily on the Temple as a major Jewish institution as well as on the concepts of the Temple and the sacrificial cult. They do so while minimally discrediting the legitimacy of the Jerusalem Temple and the sacrifices, even as they propose alternatives after its destruction. Whether referring to the Temple in the standard manner or a radical one, these authors are undoubtedly aware that they are sharing this key symbol with non-Christian Jews, and this seems to be one of their hidden messages: that they share the same holy center devoted to the one and only God despite their differences and persecution by fellow Jews.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-161
Author(s):  
Edmund Cairns

The responsibility to protect was not the only concept that grew out of the world’s failure to tackle the mass atrocities of the 1990s in Rwanda, Bosnia and elsewhere. So too did a new approach to humanitarian action which placed a higher priority on protecting civilians, and on advocacy to do so, than had hitherto been common. Oxfam’s role in the campaign to persuade the 2005 World Summit to adopt the responsibility to protect was one prominent example, but, to different degrees, this broad approach has become widely shared among many international humanitarian agencies. Since 2005, however, even Oxfam has made little use of the responsibility to protect to frame its own work to help protect civilians, or to advocate to prevent mass atrocities in specific crises. This is partly because of the fear that R2P can be misapplied to justify military intervention where the benefits do not clearly outweigh the risks. But it is also because of the continuing suspicion around R2P among many governments. This seems to reflect the wider limits of what largely Western-based humanitarian agencies and governments can do to develop new international norms and put them into effect. When R2P was first developed, humanitarian agencies played a part in broadly similar alliances to ban landmines, establish the icc and so on. Some of these have already had a substantial effect, while it may be a generation before the value of R2P and others can be fairly evaluated. Looking ahead, humanitarian agencies will have to put an increasing emphasis on influencing emerging powers and other Southern governments, while alliances between governments and ngos, to be effective, will have to be genuinely global.


2022 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-262
Author(s):  
Srdjan Vucetic

Abstract Thirty years ago, William Wallace likened British foreign policy to a musical tug-of-war between the ‘Anglo-Saxons’ and ‘Europeans’, attributing ‘all the best tunes’ to the former. This article revisits Wallace's thesis and its main concept: national identity. It finds that Wallace was right to draw attention to the power of the ruling elite to shape Englishness and Britishness. However, the article also finds that ‘global’ foreign policy ideas were never the exclusive province of a segment of the British elite. Rather, they circulated in English and more broadly British society writ large, reflecting and reinforcing deep-seated, even unselfconscious, agreements between both ‘Anglo-Saxon’ and ‘European’ elites on the one hand, and much of the mass consumer public on the other. It follows that the constraints posed on possibilities of foreign policy change were always greater than Wallace had suggested; that a ‘lesser’ British foreign policy that was, and still is, so hard to imagine for the British is significant for analysis of dynamics of ‘western’ knowledge production that come under critique in this special issue. But rather than focusing exclusively on elites, critical analyses of knowledge exchange should be attuned to popular common sense, too.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Courtney J. Fung

Abstract Much has been written about China's active engagement and progressive approach to the “responsibility to protect,” a norm that reframes state sovereignty not as a right but as a responsibility. China's response to the “Report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK),” which invokes the norm, however, challenges existing literature. China flatly refuses to uphold the responsibility to protect in the case of the DPRK, despite using previously supported standards to invoke the norm elsewhere and the report's dozens of consensual recommendations. This article is the first to systematically investigate how China has responded to the report. It shows that China's responses are shaped by its exceptionalism and concerns that the responsibility to protect could lead to regime change. I conclude with implications for the broader question of China's engagement with international norms in its near abroad. In my discussion, I draw on interviews with Korean and Chinese foreign policy elites, UN and US officials and DPRK human rights advocates, as well as primary and secondary documents.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Adelman

AbstractDuring the first decade of the twenty-first century, a campaign developed and succeeded in establishing a new doctrine in international affairs called the 'Responsibility to Protect' which had a prevention and a rehabilitation dimension but was mostly focused on the rights and responsibilities of states to intervene in the domestic affairs of other states when the latter failed to protect their citizens from mass atrocities. Movements grew up around the doctrine to publicise it, analyse it, and ensure its implementation. An example of the latter is W2I, the 'Will to Intervene' which, unlike R2P, did not require UN authorisation for intervention as part of its platform. A key test of the doctrine was Darfur. Yet the study of the case indicates no likelihood of intervention even under the Obama regime that was committed to doing something about Darfur and has put multilateralism at the forefront of its foreign policy. The report concludes by contrasting the huge discrepancy between the rhetorical success in the adoption of R2P as an international norm and the absence of practices consistent with that sweeping victory. The paper suggests that advances in international norms are best indicated, not by the endorsement of general principles, but by the development of actual practices on the ground.


1995 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 129-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gillingham

I Shall be considering England during the long eleventh century—from the 990s, the Battle of Maldon and Byrhtferth of Ramsey's ‘life of Oswald’, to the 1130s, die world of Geoffrey Gaimar. I shall do so in the light of a situation where, on the one hand, historians of Anglo-Saxon England commonly refer to gentlemen and gentry in their period but do so casually, as though their presence there is something to be taken for granted, and, on the other, where scholars who regard themselves as historians of the gentry seem reluctant to admit that the phenomenon they study can have existed much before 1200, if then. In the first part of this paper I shall argue that there was a gentry in eleventh-century England, that below the great lords there were many layers of society whose members shared the interests and pursuits of the great, i.e. we should accept the terminology of historians of Anglo-Saxon England from Sir Frank Stenton onwards. I shall also argue that in all probability many vigorous members of die Anglo-Saxon gentry were knights, using the word ‘knight’ to mean the kind of person whom, in the late twelfth century, Richard FitzNigel described as an active knight (strenuus miles), i.e. someone whose characteristic and indispensable possessions were his body armour and the requisite horses


Author(s):  
Vaughn Shannon

International norms exist as constraints on foreign policy, yet norms are also the product of the foreign policies of states and other actors. Research has demonstrated how norms restrain foreign policy choice and behavior, and even alter state conceptions of national interests. Other studies point to the weakness of norms in the face of national interests and state power. Others note that the meaning of norms and their obligations are often contested, leading to problems of norm violation and norm enforcement. As social constructions, an important consideration is how and when foreign policy promotes norms and norm diffusion in the broader international community.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Williams

AbstractFor its advocates, the 'responsibility to protect' (R2P) principle is clearly intended to be a universal concept, applicable equally to all parts of the globe. Yet recent literature examining the processes of norm diffusion in international relations has suggested that so-called universal norms do not automatically become embedded in different regions of the world and hence commitment to them varies depending on the local context. This article explores this issue with reference to how members of African international society have thought about the R2P idea. To do so it proceeds in two parts. The first summarises what I mean by African international society and the process of norm localization. In the second, I explore the current status of the R2P idea within the African society of states with reference to six illustrative episodes. These concern: 1) the building of Africa's new peace and security architecture; 2) the debate surrounding the adoption of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document; 3) UN Security Council debates about the protection of civilians in armed conflict; 4) the African Union's response to the conflict in Darfur, Sudan; 5) the UN Secretary-General's appointment of a special adviser on R2P; and 6) African international society's response to the crisis in Zimbabwe. I conclude by reflecting upon what these episodes reveal about the current status of the R2P within African international society and the extent to which different camps are emerging that articulate different local positions on, and express varying degrees of skepticism about, the protection principle.


Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Epongse Nkealah ◽  
Olutoba Gboyega Oluwasuji

Ideas of nationalisms as masculine projects dominate literary texts by African male writers. The texts mirror the ways in which gender differentiation sanctions nationalist discourses and in turn how nationalist discourses reinforce gender hierarchies. This article draws on theoretical insights from the work of Anne McClintock and Elleke Boehmer to analyse two plays: Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon by Bole Butake and Gilbert Doho and Hard Choice by Sunnie Ododo. The article argues that women are represented in these two plays as having an ambiguous relationship to nationalism. On the one hand, women are seen actively changing the face of politics in their societies, but on the other hand, the means by which they do so reduces them to stereotypes of their gender.


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