R2P at the UN: the Problem of Selective History and Incomplete Narratives

Abstract

The current discussion on R2P at the UN is largely ahistorical or at most informed by selective historical references, which exclude earlier forms of intervention aimed at atrocity prevention, particularly by states in the global South. This contribution argues that the result is a skewed understanding of the practice of intervention that serves to deny agency to actors outside of the West and undermines the framing of atrocity prevention and R2P as an issue of global concern.