Analyzing the Co-Evolution of the Responsibility to Protect and the Protection of Civilians in UN Peace Operations

This article analyses the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in conjunction with the Protection of Civilians (POC) in peace operations. It examines where and how the two concepts have challenged, altered, led to reinterpretations and had feedback effects on each other. Drawing on methods from discourse analysis, the article examines their: gradual institutionalization at the United Nations (UN); deployment in the practices of the Security Council; and, influence over the actions of operations in the field. The analysis shows that the R2P has co-evolved with POC and particularly the implementation of POC through UN peace operations. The article illustrates that the emergence of the R2P and the trends in POC in peace operations have cross-fertilised in discourse and practice at the UN regarding the prevention and response to egregious of human rights abuses. It argues that this has influenced their respective trajectories with ramifications for understanding the normative trajectory and status of the R2P as it enters its third decade in popular lexicon. In particular, it posits that understanding the current and future status of the R2P will be enhanced by insights into how the R2P has shaped, but also been shaped by, other contiguous normative agendas, thematic areas and practices