Hollow Norms and the Responsibility to Protect

Aidan Hehir is Reader in International Relations and Director of the Security and International Relations Programme at the University of Westminster, UK.

• 1. Chapter 1/Introduction: ‘R2P has begun to change the world’.- 2. Chapter 2: The Rise of R2P and the Fall of Human Rights.- 3. Chapter 3: R2P and the Limits of Norms.- 4. Chapter 4: Sovereignty as Authority: State Support for R2P.- 5. Chapter 5: Sovereignty as Liability: The Security Council and R2P.- 6. Chapter 6: Norms and Mass Atrocities.- 7. Chapter 7: Critics or Courtiers?: R2P and the Status Quo.- 8. Chapter 8/Conclusion: After Failure

“The overwhelming majority of Security Council resolutions which mention R2P have referred exclusively to the host state’s primary responsibility to protect human rights and thereby reinforced R2P’s state-centrism and conservatism. … the most fascinating element of the book, … is that it exposes the problematic and even counterproductive nature of R2P’s progress and the consensus that has been created around the norm.” (Christof Royer, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, April 26, 2019)