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International Protection and the Sovereign Decision - A Geneology of the Responsibility to Protect

Gustafsson, Daniel LU (2013) STVM21 20122
Department of Political Science
Abstract
In the wake of the 2005 World Summit ratification of the responsibility to protect doctrine, the cases of Darfur and Syria have revealed the decisionary discretion of the collective international responsibility to protect inscribed within the doctrine. Through an engagement with the decisionist theory of Carl Schmitt and the work of Giorgio Agamben, this essay seeks to return the question of the decision regarding intervention under the responsibility to protect doctrine to its proper place as the functioning of power. Through the genealogical method of Michel Foucault, the diverse elements of the doctrine could be traced to show the decision as the articulation of a certain relation of power. Inscribed within the legal anomie where... (More)
In the wake of the 2005 World Summit ratification of the responsibility to protect doctrine, the cases of Darfur and Syria have revealed the decisionary discretion of the collective international responsibility to protect inscribed within the doctrine. Through an engagement with the decisionist theory of Carl Schmitt and the work of Giorgio Agamben, this essay seeks to return the question of the decision regarding intervention under the responsibility to protect doctrine to its proper place as the functioning of power. Through the genealogical method of Michel Foucault, the diverse elements of the doctrine could be traced to show the decision as the articulation of a certain relation of power. Inscribed within the legal anomie where international humanitarian and human rights law no longer applies, the doctrine would prescribe a collective international responsibility to protect only in relation to a figure of bare life, such that the fate of the latter would remain subject to the decision of the Security Council. This decision can, as such, always take the form of an abstention on action, sustaining the legal anomie wherein sovereign power would exist without legal restrictions. (Less)
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author
Gustafsson, Daniel LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVM21 20122
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
RtoP, responsibility to protect, decisionism, Schmitt, bare life
language
English
id
3351469
date added to LUP
2013-02-05 14:31:34
date last changed
2013-02-05 14:31:34
@misc{3351469,
  abstract     = {{In the wake of the 2005 World Summit ratification of the responsibility to protect doctrine, the cases of Darfur and Syria have revealed the decisionary discretion of the collective international responsibility to protect inscribed within the doctrine. Through an engagement with the decisionist theory of Carl Schmitt and the work of Giorgio Agamben, this essay seeks to return the question of the decision regarding intervention under the responsibility to protect doctrine to its proper place as the functioning of power. Through the genealogical method of Michel Foucault, the diverse elements of the doctrine could be traced to show the decision as the articulation of a certain relation of power. Inscribed within the legal anomie where international humanitarian and human rights law no longer applies, the doctrine would prescribe a collective international responsibility to protect only in relation to a figure of bare life, such that the fate of the latter would remain subject to the decision of the Security Council. This decision can, as such, always take the form of an abstention on action, sustaining the legal anomie wherein sovereign power would exist without legal restrictions.}},
  author       = {{Gustafsson, Daniel}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{International Protection and the Sovereign Decision - A Geneology of the Responsibility to Protect}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}