The First Response: Peaceful Means in the Responsibility to Protect’s Third Pillar

In September the United Nations General Assembly will convene an informal interactive dialogue to reflect on ten years of implementation of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and set priorities for the next decade. In preparation for the dialogue, a wide variety of global and regional consultations have considered the most pressing policy challenges for atrocity prevention and response. These consultations consistently identified the need to more thoroughly examine peaceful response measures under the third pillar of the R2P framework.

The third pillar of R2P is the most controversial and least well understood element of the principle as a whole. In a draft policy analysis brief for the Stanley Center, Professor Alex Bellamy considers tools and strategies associated with the peaceful application of pillar three. The brief assesses the utility of these measures, emphasizing their limitations, the conditions that seem to make their use more effective, and the international community’s capacity to employ them. It ends by offering practical recommendations to strengthen global capacity for peaceful and effective response to mass atrocity crimes.

On Wednesday, September 9, 2015, the Stanley Center will host a policy salon dinner to discuss the peaceful means available for intervention and the associated challenges and necessary conditions related to their implementation. The topic contributes to the shift in focus from reaching consensus within the global community to implementing the norm.