International Relations Commons^™

“Thinking Through, And Beyond, Triumphalism”, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The humanitarian crisis in Syria has instigated calls to activate the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine to stop the Assad regime from its murderous rampage. Armed with a failed UN Security Council resolution that would have endorsed an Arab League peace plan, thanks to Russian and Chinese vetoes, David Rieff reproves widespread liberal consensus for intervention in a February 2012 Foreign Policy article.

March Roundtable: Responding To Syria, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Save Us from the Liberal Hawks” by David Rieff. Foreign Policy, February 13, 2012.

Who Let The Dogs Out? R, R2p, Christine Bell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

As a long-time human rights advocate I find myself uncomfortably sharing Rieff's central concern over the link between military intervention and human rights advocacy, forged through the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine. This common concern is uncomfortable because I don't share his broader sentiments. However, it is also uncomfortable because it involves me swimming against the human rights tide, which seems to have embraced R2P.

"Moral Ambivalence Is No Recipe For Engagement", Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The bottom line is that the crisis in Syria is tragic and extremely complicated. Some of its more complex issues include the threat of ethnic conflict, refugee flows, Iran's regional influence, and the impact of this uprising on other protests in the Arab world, ongoing and in the future. However, there are also several incontrovertible facts: the regime of Bashar al-Assad, in the name of putting down a protest movement that turned violent, is responsible for at least 7,500 deaths and shows no signs of relenting.

The New Public Diplomacy: The Winning Move In Revolutions, Shannon Zimmerman

Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy

The countries of the Arab Spring have taken differing approaches and have experienced conflicting outcomes. Egyptian and Tunisian protestors utilized public diplomacy as a political weapon while other states failed to realize its potential. In particular, social media were used to communicate with local actors, the military, and the international community, allowing protesters to disseminate their messages of non-violence. As a result, the revolutionary movement was not alienating to the citizenry or to the security forces. This paper will explore the use of public diplomacy by nonviolent protesters to 'win' the security forces and prevent their uprising from descending into …