Summary
The emerging norm, R2P, whose nonapplication to Gaza closes the headnote to Part 2 of Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope: Falk treats its selective use — invoked for Libya in 2011, withheld from Gaza’s collective punishment — as proof of its geopolitical character (PDF p.73-74).
Details
- Formulation, as Falk gives it: the norm “was formulated in the aftermath of the Kosovo War of 1999, in which NATO waged war without prior authorization from the UN Security Council”, expressing the organised international community’s responsibility to protect vulnerable civilian populations, and as more appropriate terminology than “humanitarian intervention” in the postcolonial era (PDF p.74).
- Reliance on R2P was prominent in the Security Council debate preceding the 2011 Libya intervention, supposedly limited to protecting Benghazi; NATO’s regime-changing operations made its Libyan application controversial and inhibited a stronger UN response to the Damascus regime in Syria (PDF p.74).
- “The geopolitical character of R2P is also confirmed by its nonapplication in relation to the long ordeal of collective punishment inflicted upon the people of Gaza.” (PDF p.74)