R2P. The controversial Implementation of The Responsibility to Protect within State Sovereignty

Abstract

The thesis is a cover-article for five published articles on R2P, the national and international responsibility to protect populations from mass atrocities defined as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. The principle was adopted by the UN General Assembly at the World Summit in 2005 and has since been implemented, partly with success, partly by generating great controversy. My articles were published in the period from 2016 to 2021, four of them in English, one in Norwegian. The first one discusses R2P in a cosmopolitan context, the second one explores possibilities for joint action. The third and the fourth article are both about implementation through the UN Security Council, while the fifth one discusses the prospects for R2P implementation in a world of rising Asian powers (China and India). The thesis includes a presentation of the articles and a discussion of methodology. It also includes reflections upon language used about R2P. A substantial part of the thesis is a separate discussion about the meaning of state sovereignty as responsibility. This is a premise for the discussion in the articles, but the articles themselves do not discuss this in detail. The thesis does. The analytical tool chosen for the discussion in the thesis is the theoretical approach to international relations (IR) called the English School.