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An international responsibility to develop in order to protect? A responsibility too far

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Abstract

The Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) norm has a controversial relationship with development which has led to divisions between both academics and governments. The article differentiates between three camps: minimalist, middle ground, and radical, whilst arguing that the debate is hindered by the lack of data on this specific issue. Helping to address this lacuna, the article puts forward the first thematic analysis on development and mass atrocities in the 21st century. To do this it analyses thirty-seven countries and Human Development Index (HDI) data (1990‒2020) to establish patterns in HDI data for countries that have experienced mass atrocities or for which there were serious concerns of, both with regard to status/absolute positions in the ranking and change/trajectory. It puts forward eight key findings which collectively show that there are no patterns that link mass atrocities, or serious concerns of them taking place, to status, rank, or a particular direction of change. Drawing on these findings, the article defends the minimalist position that the RtoP should not engage with long-term development issues.

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Notes

  1. The term ‘mass atrocity’ is used to refer to four crimes associated with the RtoP: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing.

  2. This corresponds with related studies. Ulfelder and Valentino (2008) identify 120 episodes, two of which are from the 21st century: Liberia and Sudan.

  3. Angola, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Russia, Rwanda, Thailand and Turkey.

  4. The index scores are taken from the HDI data centre (http://www.hdr.undp.org/en/data) but this does not include rankings. They are taken from each individual HDI report. The bibliography does not list every report because this would add too much to the word count.

  5. The ‘change in HDI rank’ 2005‒2010 is taken from UNDP (2010: 148‒51). The ‘change in HDI rank’ 2014‒2019 data is taken from UNDP (2020a: 347‒50). Table 1 above omits data for the change in HDI rank between 2010‒2015 in order to prevent overlap because the 2014 and 2015 data would appear in two columns (2010‒2015 and 2014‒2019) without us knowing the influence of these years on the overall trend. For the cases that specifically occurred in 2009 and 2010 the analysis below includes the data 2010‒2015 which is taken from UNDP (2016: 202‒205).

  6. At times the HDI researchers have retrospectively inserted data for a year even if, a) there was no HDI report for that year, and b) there was an HDI report, but it did not contain data on that country.

  7. Data is missing for Eritrea, Georgia, Palestine, and South Sudan.

  8. These rankings are taken from the HDI reports for the year in question.

  9. Georgia is excluded from this list of countries because it was ranked high in 2010 but its violence predated it.

  10. The data is taken from United Nations Development Programme (2020b).

  11. The only outlier is Syria, as it was in flux (negative-positive-negative) and is not included in either category.

  12. This leaves six countries, of these, Guinea and Mali did not move and four regressed Kenya (−1 2005‒2010 and −1 2010‒2015), Sri Lanka 2009 (−2 2010‒2015) Sudan (−2 2005‒2010) and Ukraine (−1 2014‒2019). The data for 2005‒2010 and 2014‒2019 is taken from Table 1 above which comes from the aforementioned HDI reports. For 2010‒2015 data see United Nations Development Programme (2016: 202‒205).

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Acknowledgements

The article has benefitted from three presentations at the 5th Responsibility to Protect in Theory and Practice Conference (June 2021), Hacettepe University in Turkey (May 2021) and the Center for Development and International Studies Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta in Indonesia (April 2021). I would like to thank all those that attended and asked questions. In addition, I thank Alex Bellamy, Alex Beresford, Astra Bonini, Aidan Hehir, Christelle Cazabat, Gabriel Bruges, Pinar Gozan, and Richard Illingworth for their feedback during this process. For further correspondence email a.gallagher@leeds.ac.uk

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    Adrian Gallagher

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Gallagher, A. An international responsibility to develop in order to protect? A responsibility too far. J Int Relat Dev 25, 1020–1045 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-022-00268-w

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