GPPi publishes a working paper on Brazil and the “Responsibility While Protecting”

In a new GPPi working pager, Director Thorsten Benner argues that Brazil’s promotion of the ​“Responsibility While Protecting” concept portends the future of global norm evolution after the end of unquestioned Western dominance. However, while it is clear that there is a need for non-Western powers like Brazil to act as global norm entrepreneurs, it is less clear whether Brazil is prepared to assume this role.

Published in March 2013, the working paper is titled Brazil as a Norm Entrepreneur: The ​“Responsibility While Protecting” Initiative.

Brazilian UN Ambassador Viotti first presented the ​“Responsibility While Protecting” (RWP) to the Security Council on 9 November 2011. For Benner, RWP has the potential to build bridges between opposing camps in the debate on prevention, intervention and the ​“Responsibility to Protect” (R2P). In his piece, Benner traces Brazil’s advancement of the RWP concept, which is related to a contested key aspect of the global order – the understanding of sovereignty. He then critically reviews the reactions by Western powers to RWP as well as the differing responses by India, South Africa, China and Russia.

According to Benner, there are three main reasons for the West’s initial opposition to RWP. They have objected to substantive aspects of the proposal, such as the ​“rigid sequencing” of the different political and military measures. They have been dissatisfied with Brazil’s position on the conflict in Syria. Finally, they have been generally reluctant to accept initiatives from outside the established powers in debates on core issues of sovereignty and intervention.

The piece closes by speculating on the uncertain prospects of the RWP initiative. Just as a number of influential Western countries as well as India and South Africa have started to warm up to the concept, the Brazilian government seems to have lost interest in further developing the concept.