Global Issues: Libya Update ~ R2P, intervention etc.

Here are a few recent articles and resources which might be useful for both analysis of events in Libya and also for linking in with the Global Issues paper - especially on the Humanitarian Intervention topic:

1. Max Hastings has an article in the FT - Why the military is right to fret over Libya - which gives excellent over arching analysis of the current military intervention and its prospects.

2. The US think tank the council for foreign Intervention have some in depth stuff on the issue of Humanitarian Intervention: Here goes: Libya and the Responsibility to Protect . This argues: As international efforts to create a no-fly zone over Libya continued into their sixth day (CNN), debate has increased about a UN resolution effectively ordering Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi to end civilian killings and whether it’s being applied properly in Libya. UN Security Council Resolution 1973 imposes a no-fly zone and authorizes member states to “take all necessary measures” to protect civilians under attack from the Qaddafi’s government.

Proponents of the measure have hailed it as a victory (TheStar) for the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine, while critics say is being used for political (Hindu), and not purely humanitarian, purposes. The R2P concept, unanimously adopted by UN member states in 2005 as part of an outcome document, emerged out of the international community’s inability to halt genocides like those in Rwanda and Bosnia. According to the doctrine, if a state fails to protect its citizens from “genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity,” it becomes the international community’s responsibility to do so. As this Backgrounder notes, it includes use of military force by the international community if peaceful measures prove inadequate.

1. Also from CFR’s Foreign Affairs Journal: A New Lease on Life for Humanitarianism The United States and its coalition partners’ decision to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya seemed to be a vindication of the fragile “responsibility to protect” norm. But just how strengthened RtoP will be depends on how well the intervention turns out.

2. Useful CFR ‘backgrounder’: The Dilemma of Humanitarian Intervention