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The Responsibility to Protect in Libya and Syria: Europe, the USA and Global Human Rights Governance

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The West and the Global Power Shift

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics ((PSEUP))

Abstract

Tocci starts off by recalling that values, prime amongst which human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and free market capitalism, have traditionally been the lynchpin of the transatlantic bond. Based on this broadly shared bedrock of liberal values, her chapter gauges the effectiveness of the transatlantic partners to enshrine individual human rights in the global governance architecture. In particular, it concentrates on a political norm in-the-making—the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). To what extent are the European Union and the United States, in partnership and/or independently, succeeding in entrenching R2P as an accepted political norm at the global level? In particular, to what extent are non-Western powers, notably the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) endorsing R2P? How did the international response to the conflicts in Libya and Syria affect the global conversation over R2P?

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Tocci, N. (2016). The Responsibility to Protect in Libya and Syria: Europe, the USA and Global Human Rights Governance. In: Alcaro, R., Peterson, J., Greco, E. (eds) The West and the Global Power Shift. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57486-2_10

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