Responsibility to Protect in the Global System

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine is based on the assumption that the state is to remain at the heart of world order. It is true that the doctrine implies a weakening of state sovereignty concomitant with the process of globalisation and greater possibility of interference in the internal affairs of states than in the past. What is weakened, however, is the individual state, i.e. this or that state which behaves irresponsibly, not the state as such, nor the global system of states. R2P presupposes the existence of states at the core of the system. It requires states to behave responsibly towards their own citizens and calls for measures to be taken by states, possibly in cooperation with international organisations and other non-state actors.A question that is rarely posed when dealing with R2P is whether and to what extent R2P can work in a world in which states appear less and less capable of providing people with protection. The global economy, in particular, is often said to undermine the current ability of states to provide protection from unemployment, state insolvency, hunger, and other economic macro-variables affecting people’s daily lives. In these conditions the appeal of R2P to the responsibility of governments, either to protect their own citizens or to intervene elsewhere to assist people in need, risks sounding like the last cry for a better boat while the boat is irremediably sinking. This essay proposes that R2P is seen from this global perspective. The focus is on whether R2P makes sense in a world of states which appea rincreasingly unable to afford it and on the possible consequences that this state of affairs may have for the protection of people in the future.