The responsibility to protect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

The responsibility to protect - Essay Example1). There has always been a traditional emphasis on state sovereignty, which means that any demesne state is free to govern its country and its people as it sees fit, without intervention from other countries. That said, there have always been threats to this sovereignty, due to the global nature of the valet and nations who try to intervene for various purposes. However, until the early 2000s, there has not been a perspective that the sovereignty of nations should be compromised in the cases of mass genocide and the like, or at least there has not been the perspective that there should be a doctrine to address this, and that this doctrine should be viewed through the eyes of the victims. That all changed with the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. This doctrine, while imperfect, and viewed with a great deal of suspicion by many countries as a Trojan Horse through which nations foundation invade one another with ostensible humanitar ian goals, has still been beneficial to some extent, although has not seemed to go far enough in abating atrocities that have occurred just about the world. This paper will examine the nature of sovereignty, the origins of the responsibility to protect, and the effect it has had on the world community since its inception. The Traditional Meaning of Sovereignty In order to purify understand the concept of the responsibility to protect, and how it diverges from traditional understandings, one must understand the meaning of state sovereignty, which has been described as a defining principle of interstate highway relations and the foundation of world order (Supplement to the International Commission on disturbance and affirm Sovereignty). Traditionally, nation-states have sovereignty, which means that each nation is free to bump over its people as it sees fit, and dispose of its resources in same manner. However, this power is not absolute, and it subjected to regulations and cons traints from the international body (International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, p. 12). cardinal of the traditional tenets of state sovereignty is the tenet that each nation respects other nations sovereignty, so that the policy of non-intervention is the international norm. If this is violated, and another nation penetrates a nations sovereignty, then the offended nation has the right to defend itself (International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, p. 12). The United Nations was the body that defend state sovereignty. However, the concept of state sovereignty has always been a tenuous one. The powerful typically invade the province of nations, and the globalization of todays world recognizes that environmental, cultural and economic influences do not respect national borders, partly due to new technologies and advances in communication (Supplement to the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty) The traditional notion of sovereignty has further evolved to where states agree that sovereignty is a responsibility. As such, states agree that protecting its citizens is a condition for maintaining its sovereignty. Further, as a condition of sovereignty, national leaders are accountable for their own actions, and nations are accountable to the international bodies for how that nation treats its populace (International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, p. 12). The Responsibility to Protect The Responsibilit