'Speaking R2P' and the Prevention of Mass Atrocities

Within a very short space of time the 'Responsibility to Protect' has moved from a concept developed by a small international commission to a crucial concept in world politics. As an effort to balance considerations of state sovereignty with humanitarian concerns, it is a highly innovative and promising normative development. Nonetheless, there are important difficulties in both operationalising and entrenching it. Three of these are considered in this article: first, the crucial contestation over the meaning of the concept; second, the failure thus far of the concept to significantly generate the political will to intervene; and finally, the difficulties that persist in relation to the question of where authority should reside for the use of force to prevent and end situations of humanitarian emergency.