Does the Doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) Apply in Syria?, Summer 2013

As revolutions sweeping over the Arab world reshape geopolitical arrangements and foreign policy, the international community is debating the rules of a possible humanitarian intervention in Syria. They have been watching, mostly on the sidelines, as the conflict devolves into a confused mess of guerrilla fighting that has ripped the small country at its seams. Reports of rampant human rights abuses, use of chemical weapons, and massacres of civilians have forced the world to ask: is international military intervention needed to protect the people of Syria? Although it is a prime case for intervention under R2P, the situation in Syria is quickly moving away from one that can be easily fixed by any sort of intervention.