R2P and Intervention After Libya

In 2001, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) released a report arguing that states and the international community have a responsibility to protect (R2P) citizens from major human rights violations and war crimes. The coming years saw much discussion of the concept and supportive votes at the U.N., but there was little practical implementation. In 2011, world events and U.N. action breathed new life into R2P. Libya was the first case of the U.N. using R2P to authorize the use of force against an existing state to protect civilians. Debates over Libya before the authorization of force, and discussions of the mission both as it continued and afterward show that there remain deep divisions within the international community over key issues in authorizing and implementing R2P intervention. For an emerging norm, perhaps the only thing worse than being ignored is being implemented in a way that reinforces old fears and raises new controversies. The Libyan case already has shaped discussions of possible action in Syria. R2P has been dealt a severe setback, so it will not emerge as a meaningful new norm, will not serve as the justification of new interventions, and may in some cases actually delay the adoption of less coercive responses to human rights violations

Laying Bare: Agamben, Chandler, and The Responsibility to Protect

This paper demonstrates the hidden similarities between Raymond Chandler’s prototypical noir The Big Sleep, and the United Nations Responsibility to Protect (R2P) document. By taking up the work of philosopher Giorgio Agamben, this paper shows that the bare life produces the form of protection embodied by Philip Marlowe in Chandler’s novel and by the United Nations Security Council in R2P. Agamben’s theorizing of the extra-legal status of the sovereign pertains to both texts, in which the protector exists outside of the law. Philip Marlowe, tasked with preventing the distribution of pornographic images, commits breaking-and-entering, withholding evidence, and murder. Analogously, R2P advocates for the Security Council’s ability to trespass laws that safeguard national sovereignty in order to prevent “bare” atrocities against human life. As Agamben demonstrates, the extra-legal position of the protector is made possible by “stripping bare” human life. This paper also gestures towards limitations of Agamben’s thought by indicating, through a comparison of these two texts, that bare life produces states of exception as the object of protection rather than punishment

R2P in the UN Security Council: Darfur, Libya and beyond

It has been argued that consensus on the responsibility to protect (R2P) was lost in the UN Security Council as a result of the NATO-led intervention in Libya in 2011. This argument assumes that there was more agreement on R2P before the Libyan intervention than there was afterwards. Yet a close examination of the Security Council’s use of language on R2P shows the opposite: R2P was highly contentious within the Security Council prior to the Libyan intervention, and less so afterwards. Not only has the Council used R2P language more frequently since 2011, but also negotiating this language has become quicker and easier. To demonstrate this I compare negotiations on Darfur with deliberations during and after the Arab Spring. Resolution 1706 on Darfur was the first time the Security Council referred to R2P in a country-specific resolution – and indeed it was the only country-specific resolution to refer to R2P before 2011 – making it an apt point of comparison. Via focused analysis on how the language used in Security Council resolution evolves over time, this article demonstrates that the Council has found ‘agreed language’ on R2P that is acceptable to members, both for thematic resolutions and country-specific resolutions. Language on R2P in Security Council resolutions has shifted from contentious to commonplace

Effects of dark energy and flat rotation curve on the gravitational time delay of particle with non-zero mass

The effects of several dark energy models on gravitational time delay of particles with non-zero mass are investigated and analytical expressions for the same are obtained at the first order accuracy. Also the expression for gravitational time delay under the influence of conformal gravity potential that well describes the flat rotation curve of spiral galaxies is derived. The findings suggest that i) the conformal gravity description of dark matter reduces the net time delay in contrast to the effect of normal dark matter and therefore in principle the models can be discriminated using gravitational time delay observations and ii)the effect of dark energy/flat rotation curve may be revealed from high precision measurements of gravitational time delay of particles involving megaparsec and beyond distance-scale.Comment: 10 page

Comment on "The third Zemach moment of the proton", by Cloet and Miller

Cloet and Miller, in arXiv:1008.4345, state that "existing data rule out a value of the third Zemach moment large enough to explain the current puzzle with the proton charge radius determined from the Lamb shift in muonic Hydrogen. This is in contrast with the recent claim of De R\'ujula [arXiv:1008.3861]". To be more precise: it is not. It is, however, contrary to what they claim that I claim. Cloet and Miller have simply misinterpreted my claims.Comment: 2 pages, no figure

R2P: Activating the International Community’s Responsibility to Protect by Shifting Focus Away from Collective Action by the Security Council Towards Early Warning and Prevention

The responsibility to protect (R2P) is an expression of policy which aims to prevent mass atrocities or stop them if they are underway. Consensus on the international aspect, which includes when states can or should intervene to protect citizens other than their own, remains elusive. An observer might well conclude that R2P is a noble idea which is short on effectiveness. This article will examine whether R2P can lift off and move from theory to practice. How R2P has developed to date will be considered first, then the obstacles that have hindered its progress and how these might be circumvented. The final focus will be on the elements which need to come together for R2P to be activated. The conclusion will be reached that R2P can only gain real traction by looking past the Security Council to other bodies, within and outside the UN, to work together at the early warning and prevention stage. Consensus on if and when states can intervene militarily to protect is as distant as ever. It will also be concluded that R2P remains a policy aspiration and will not crystallise into a legal norm in the foreseeable future