Responsibility to Regulate: How the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ Expands State Power

Like most UN reports, particularly those concerned with the doctrine of the responsibility to protect (RtoP), the latest report of the UN Secretary-General is filled with plenty of pious guff mixed in with the platitudes that engulf UN diplomacy. But buried within the blathering are also some disturbing prescriptions for how the UN envisages rolling out RtoP around the world. I want to draw attention to three specific points in order to consider what these tell us about RtoP as a political model. First, I will look at the treatment of media and speech in the report; second, how the use of military force (the so-called third pillar of the doctrine) sits alongside the other pillars of RtoP; and third, the role of regional organizations sketched out within the report