‘Sorry ... Wrong Discourse – The Responsibility to Protect in light of Pro-Democratic Intervention Theory’

GSG-REG public lecture
Where: Room (13)12.0024 (Harmony building)
When: Tuesday 22 October, 18.00 hr.

The so-called ‘Arab spring’, as many faces as it may have across Northern Africa and the Middle East, carries one common tenor: the right of the governed to democratically control the political destiny of their respective nation. The opponents, on the other side, are in each case the ruling (oppressive) regimes. Still, starting with the intervention in Libya in 2011, it has been hailed as an almost ‘Grotian’ opportunity for propagating the concept of the ‘responsibility to protect’.

The following lecture sets out to discuss the concept of democracy, in particular in the context of the use of force, in international law and from a grass roots perspective. Thereby, the main question will be as to the direction the discourse on a ‘responsibility to protect’, prominently asserted in the context of Libya and (albeit in the negative) in Syria, is heading in light of policy considerations and the preceding discussion on an alleged right of ‘pro-democratic’ intervention (that has since ebbed within the international legal discourse).

The lecture will then go on to discuss the question how the discussion on the so-called ‘responsibility to protect’ might need to be readjusted in light of the final outcomes of its alleged application, as well as apparent priorities and agenda setting within the international community. While the legal framework might be sufficiently clear, practice is seemingly shaped along the lines of more progressive discourse on the subject.