A Requiem for a Norm: The Decay of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine in a Multipolar International System

Abstract

The Responsibility to Protect doctrine was designed in response to the rising concern for human security of the late 1990s. While initially, the norm was considered a significant adjustment to international behaviour, following the Libya intervention in 2011, this perception has been challenged. As such, this thesis interrogates its current role as a reflection of the changing nature of the international system, intensifying the decay of its principles in responding to mass atrocity. This thesis establishes that the rising multipolarity of the international system has led to the contestation of the Responsibility to Protect. Through a comparative study of the UN Security Council discourse of Myanmar and Yemen, this thesis examines the traditional life-cycle of a norm to interrogate its internalisation. It challenges literature that suggests that R2P is a dead norm. Instead, this thesis suggests that contestation of the norm is not merely in its implementation, but also its validity. In doing so, this thesis establishes that the rising multipolarity of the international system presents an opportunity for re-negotiation of the norm.