Libya and the Future of the Responsibility to Protect – African and European Perspectives

intervention in Libya have been widely hailed as events of historic importance. And rightly so. Although the UN Security Council had authorized the use of coercive measures to protect civilians before, it is the first time that the Council authorized the use of force for the purpose of human protection against the will of the acting government of a functioning state. Moreover, the broad language of the resolution left room for prolonged military action that resulted in the toppling of the Libyan regime. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P), developed by the International Commission of Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) ten years ago, and endorsed, albeit in rather general terms by the community of states at the World Summit six years ago, is finally put into practice. This watershed event will change the understanding and meaning of this hitherto contested concept in many respects. For one thing, the events in Libya point to the continuing relevance of R2P. Despite the disastrous outcomes of the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and despite plummeting support for humanitarian intervention in many Western societies, Resolution 1973 and the subsequent military campaign indicate that the idea of humanitarian intervention has not been put on the back-burner. Less easil