GPPi contributes to discussion about the Responsibility to Protect at German Foreign Office
On 15 June 2012, GPPi Associate Director Thorsten Benner spoke on a panel on the responsibility to protect (R2P) at the German Foreign Office in Berlin. The panel was part of the 20th meeting of the Arbeitskreis Friedens-und Konfliktforschung (Working Group on Peace and Conflict research), which is co-organized by the policy planning staff at the Foreign Office and brings together researchers in the field of peace and conflict with officials from the German Foreign Office.
Benner shared the panel with Christian Schaller of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. The meeting was co-chaired by Harald Müller, head of the Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt) and Thomas Bagger, head of the foreign policy planning staff.
Among other points, Benner stressed that the debate over R2P has a strong “politics of the past” (Vergangenheitspolitik) dimension. In Germany, there is particular concern over R2P. A belief that never again should Germany wage war, and never again should Germans look the other way in the face of mass atrocities, informs the tensions over policy positions on R2P. At the same time, it is important for Germany to be aware that the German politics of the past meets very different interpretations in the current global arena, where many see R2P as yet another iteration of the “mission civilisatrice,” being imposed on countries that have fought hard to assert their sovereignty. Benner also stressed that the case of Syria necessitates further thinking on the part of Germany about what it will do if the Security Council cannot agree on a course of action.