Global Connections

Global Connections

Question One:

Responsibility to Protect.

In 1994, It was devastating and painful. When the United Nations remained silent during the Rwandan Genocide, more than 800,000 people were slaughtered, and this marked the greatest failure of this organization in history. A similar case occurred in Srebrenica, where more than 8,000 Muslim members of the community were murdered despite the organization’s promise never to remain in silence while such atrocities are committed. In response to these occurrences, the UN member states adopted “the country’s ability and responsibility to protect its citizens. (R2P).”

“Responsibility to protect is regarded as the government’s primary role, and the state should protect its members from the impending mass atrocities” (Roth 44). It is also the role of the international community to offer assistance in cases where a country is defeated or lacks the necessary resources to stop such crimes. R2P allows the international community to intervene in case a state is unable or is reluctant to carry out their protection responsibility. According to the provisions of the R2P, “the security council has exclusive responsibility and authority to affect the coercive actions.” It brings to light the more often divergent positions of the three superpowers, the USA, China, and Russia. The three states possess the veto power as the permanent members of the security council, and all the three countries have agreed and endorsed all the principles of the R2P with minimal reservations regarding the provisions of the act. “China and Russia have their concerns on the notions of the international interferences, and they regard their domestic issues to remain private even in the cases that demonstrate mass atrocities” (Akbarzadeh 4), this brings challenges in the approach of R2P among the member states of the United Nations.

Syria found themselves in a bloody civil war in mid-2011, and to date, the battle is still claiming civilian lives. By the beginning of 2018, “the death cases had risen to 400,000 people with a population of more than 11 million displaced” (Russo 6). The people have lost their homes, livelihood and their family members. “The levels of destructions were beyond imagination, and the international community is silent in taking actions giving divergent views and opinions on this problem” (Roth 22). The Syrian conflict problem is seen as an example where a free state, together with the international body and community, “has failed in their roles and responsibility in protecting the Syrian citizens along with their properties from atrocities and crimes” (Akbarzadeh 8). The Syrian citizens and the world at large wonder on whether there are factors that have prevented the international community together with the Syrian government from actualizing their obligation of protection during atrocities under the principles of R2P.

Russia and China have remained affirmative and opposed the foreign interference on the regime change as a component of the R2P. “The difference in ideology among the member states in the United Nations has brought misunderstanding with the west, which has insisted that there is a lack of proper direction in Syria when the Assad regime is the ruler” (Kaarbo 33). Because the west has emphasized on the removal of President Assad from office, this has brought about a more contentious debate in the security council. Many perceptions have attributed the stalemate of the security council over Syrian problems to the reaction to the Reactions by NATO in Libya. In Libya, the security council authorized military assistance without the prior knowledge of the national government.

After the rescue missions in Syria began, China, Russia, and India started to call for an instant cease of fires, and they claimed that the council was misusing their powers. Instead of assisting the Civilians was pushing for the change in the regime, This has resulted in challenges in which even the security council finds the operations of intervention to be a challenge and a threat to security in general (Russo 9). The problems in Syria are also attributed to Russia’s Geopolitical interests. Because of these interests, Russia has dramatically imparted the decisions at the security council voting processes. Russia is also known to using the events and activities unfolded in Libya to mask its own economic and specified military interests in Syria. “Russia as a member state of the United Nations and also a key party in the security council is also on record of voting to prevent the Joint Investigative Mechanism, which was established to solve and monitor the violation of the treaty that banned the use of chemical weapons” (May 44). There the Syrian military used the Sarin gas on its civilians. “Despite all the established pieces of evidence of the complacency of the Syrian authorities in protecting the Civilians in the attacks” (Evans 92), Russia has claimed that the availed reports are fraudulent, and this is a motive attributed to the protection of its interests in Syria.

Russia has a lucrative business in firearms, and these arms are exported to these nations, and this makes Syria an essential showground for its firearm business. Again, Russia constructed a naval facility for its military interests in Tartus Syria, and the country intends to increase the capacity of this facility and to convert it to Russia’s permanent base. This indicates the fact that Russia is currently benefiting from the trade of intelligence that is carried out by the Assad regime in Syria (Russo 10).

Syria experiences continuous war and fights to weaken its economy, and thereby, minimal resources are committed towards the protection of its citizen’s life. Lack of proper resources makes the actualization of R2P in the country a challenging dream to achieve. Assistance by the foreign nation is always considered to interfere with the country’s change of regime, and this makes the whole process a delicate and complicated process.

Chinese delicate balance is also an aspect of the Syrian war, and it has called the invoking of the third Pillar of the R2P, including the non-military coercive measures like sanctions. The voting pattern is attributed to Chinas relationship with Russia in the security council. Because of the conflicting interest, to justify the cause of intervention of R2P and this has become a significant problem during voting, and this is difficult because the international community must respect the principles of each state sovereignty. All the above challenges make it difficult to enact the R2P in Syria.