“For one country R2P might be a hope, for another county it might be a curse. Where is that line? How can we be sure to react quickly and in a way to turn a potential curse into a hope?” R2P (responsibility to protect) is a topic that second-year MPA student Mastona Khalilova thinks about a lot – in part because of the friendships she has made with several MPA classmates who are from countries in which the international community’s decision to intervene – or not to intervene – has had momentous consequences for civilian populations.
Khalilova was one of 20 CEU students who participated in an online debate on October 26 that Thomson Reuters Foundation and ITVS organized on the topic of R2P. It included a short video, a live stream with a panel of experts, and a chance to engage with other students from around the world. CEU President and Rector Michael Ignatieff, former Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) and professor of international relations at Sciences Po and Columbia University Ghassan Salamé, and former diplomat Paddy Ashdown offered different perspectives in the film on the lessons to be learned from previous R2P interventions. Although there have been successes, the R2P intervention in Libya in 2011 has been widely criticized. Ashdown described the situation in Libya today as a “bloody mess.” He went on to say that although he “longed to believe in it [R2P], I can’t go along with it as it is now.” Salamé too said that “additional clarification” of R2P was needed. He also spoke out forcefully that “something needs to be done” in Syria. Ignatieff agreed. “Syria is a case that is begging for responsibility to protect, and no one is showing any responsibility whatever,” Ignatieff said.
The expert panelists offered contrasting views on R2P. One of the areas on which they disagreed was the utility of military force. David Harland, executive director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, said that he did not believe that military intervention could ever make things better. “Once force is on the table,” he said, “you’ve opened the gates of hell.” Jessica Ashooh, deputy director of the Middle East Strategy Task Force, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, disagreed saying that “military intervention can protect lives.” Although he agreed that military force was sometimes necessary, Simon Adams, executive director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, said that prevention was – and should be – “at the heart of R2P.” He conceded though that “prevention provides a big problem of counterfactuals,” asking, “How do you show what did not happen?”
Students challenged the panel, asking about the relevance, legal standing, and morality of R2P in today’s world. While the panel agreed that R2P remains an important concept, they were unable to agree on best practices of implementing R2P to stop and prevent mass atrocities conducted by sovereign states on their own people.