Libya and the Responsibility to Protect: Between Opportunistic Humanitarianism and Value-Free Pragmatism

Abstract

Since the Treaty of Westphalia, sovereignty has been backed by the norm of nonintervention.
\nBy contrast, the responsibility to protect (R2P) strikes a balance between unauthorised
\nunilateral interventions and institutionalised indifference. With a rapidly deteriorating
\nhumanitarian situation in Libya in early 2011, the United Nations (UN) authorised the use of
\nforce to protect an imminent slaughter of civilians but prohibited taking sides in the internal civil
\nwar, intervening with ground troops, or effecting forcible regime change. The record of NATO
\nactions in Libya marks a triumph for R2P but also raises questions about how to prevent the
\nabuse of UN authority to use international force for purposes beyond human protection.