Ethics, Obligation, and the Responsibility to Protect
This book critically examines arguments about obligation and responsibility in relation to the responsibility to protect (R2P) and situates it within wider moral argumentation concerning the role of culpability, answerability, and human rights in international affairs.
It discusses the ways in which R2P has been imagined and contested in order to illuminate some possible trajectories through which its potential might be actualized. Crucial to the development of a more responsible world politics will be the recognition that formal inter-state regimes of responsibility will need to be embedded within wider social fields of responsibility constituted by the participation of attentive and mobilized global citizens ready to hold elites accountable. This book provides novel ideas to better understand the role of rhetoric and moral argumentation in international relations. Much of the novel contribution comes in the form of its conceptual breakdown of the ambiguous concept of responsibility, which often clouds clear understanding not only in international relations but also in the specific debates over the ethics and practice of the international responsibility to protect regime.
This book will be of much interest to students of the responsibility to protect, human rights, global governance, and international relations in general.
Mark Busser is currently Assistant Professor in Political Science at McMaster University, Canada.
Global Politics and the Responsibility to Protect
Series Editors:
Alex J. Bellamy
University of Queensland
Sara E. Davies
Griffith University
Monica Serrano
The City University of New York.
The aim of this book series is to gather the best new thinking about the Responsibility to Protect into a core set of volumes that provides a definitive account of the principle, its implementation, and its role in crises that reflects a plurality of views and regional perspectives.
Moral Responsibility, Statecraft, and Humanitarian Intervention
The US response to Rwanda, Darfur, and Libya
Cathinka Vik
Reassessing the Responsibility to Protect
Conceptual and operational challenges
Edited by Brett R. OBannon
The Responsibility to Protect and the International Criminal Court
Protection and prosecution in Kenya
Serena K. Sharma
Evaluating the Responsibility to Protect
Mass atrocity prevention as a consolidating norm in international society
Nole Crossley
International Organizations and the Rise of ISIL
Global responses to human security threats
Edited by Daniel Silander, Don Wallace and John Janzekovic
Reviewing the Responsibility to Protect
Origins, implementation and controversies
Ramesh Thakur
Ethics, Obligation, and the Responsibility to Protect
Contesting the global power relations of accountability
Mark Busser
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Global-Politics-and-the-Responsibility-to-Protect/book-series/GPRP
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2019 Mark Busser
The right of Mark Busser to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Busser, Mark, author.
Title: Ethics, obligation, and the responsibility to protect : contesting the
global power relations of accountability / Mark Busser.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. |
Series: Global politics and the responsibility to protect | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019002657 (print) | LCCN 2019012877 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780429802539 (Web PDF) | ISBN 9780429802522 (ePub) |
ISBN 9780429802515 (Mobi) | ISBN 9781138341227 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780429440274 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: International relationsMoral and ethical aspects. |
Responsibility to protect (International law) | Human rightsInternational
cooperation.
Classification: LCC JZ1306 (ebook) | LCC JZ1306 .B86 2019 (print) |
DDC 172/.42dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002657
ISBN: 978-1-138-34122-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-44027-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To Lindsay, Henry, Sam, and Lucy
The process of thinking through, researching, and writing this book would not have been possible without a tremendous amount of support from my family, friends, and colleagues.
I am grateful to Marshall Beier, who has offered guidance and encouragement throughout every stage in this process, and who played no small part in inspiring some of the basic elements of this project. I am also indebted to Richard Stubbs and Peter Nyers for their insight and counsel. Special thanks are also owed to Catherine Frost and Sandra Whitworth, who helped me to think through issues that would inform this project earlier in my graduate studies. Finishing this project would not have been possible without the mentorship and encouragement of Lori Campbell, Lynn Giordano, Manuela Dozzi, Tracy Prowse, James Gillett, and Jeremiah Hurley, each of whose practical and professional support has been a wellspring of resilience.
Dozens of my colleagues and friends at McMaster have been invaluable in their support, through reviewing draft chapters, discussing big ideas, and attending even the earliest of early morning conference presentations. Particular thanks are owed to Amanda Coles, Mike DiGregorio, Matt Gravelle, Heather Johnson, Calum McNeil, Jessica Merolli, Jean-Michel Montsion, Jen Mustapha-Vanderkooy, Liam Stockdale, Nicole Wegner, Mark Williams, and Katie Winstanley for challenging, rewarding, and immensely enjoyable conversations.
The research project upon this book is based was completed with the help of funding from the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council through a SSHRC CGS Doctoral Fellowship. Support was also provided through the Harry Lyman Hooker Senior Fellowship at McMaster University.
I am especially grateful to my parents, John and Dianne Busser, and my family, who have been an endless source of strength and support. Much thanks are also due to my extended family, the Salvadors, for their care and encouragement.
Finally, this book is dedicated with thanks to Lindsay, and to Henry, Sam, and Lucy, who have missed me on far too many sunny afternoons, but who make it all worthwhile.
