By Jacques Roussellier
Faculty Member, International Relations at American Public University

The NATO-led intervention in Libya has sharpened division among governments and experts on the actual interpretation and implementation of the 2005 United Nation’s responsibility to protect (R2P) initiative, particularly in light of procrastination with Syria, and one could add, northern Mali. The international military intervention in Libya has raised the issue of the relevance of R2P as a humanitarian intervention principle for regime change. The issue is broader than the legitimacy of the NATO-led operation in actively supporting the Libyan opposition and hunting down Gaddafi on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which authorized all necessary measures to protect civilian populations in Libya without explicitly allowing regime change. In question is the principle of R2P itself, linking the use of force for humanitarian protection with regime change. The varying paradigmatic perspectives on the Libyan model provide stark evidence of conflicting interpretations and expectations of R2P intentions and operational implications.