Sharing Responsibility

Luke Glanville is an associate professor in the Department of International Relations at Australian National University. He is the author of Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect: A New History. Twitter @luke_glanville
A look at the duty of nations to protect human rights beyond borders, why it has failed in practice, and what can be done about it

The idea that states share a responsibility to shield people everywhere from atrocities is presently under threat. Despite some early twenty-first century successes, including the 2005 United Nations endorsement of the Responsibility to Protect, the project has been placed into jeopardy due to catastrophes in such places as Syria, Myanmar, and Yemen; resurgent nationalism; and growing global antagonism. In Sharing Responsibility, Luke Glanville seeks to diagnose the current crisis in international protection by exploring its long and troubled history. With attention to ethics, law, and politics, he measures what possibilities remain for protecting people wherever they reside from atrocities, despite formidable challenges in the international arena.

With a focus on Western natural law and the European society of states, Glanville shows that the history of the shared responsibility to protect is marked by courageous efforts, as well as troubling ties to Western imperialism, evasion, and abuse. The project of safeguarding vulnerable populations can undoubtedly devolve into blame shifting and hypocrisy, but can also spark effective burden sharing among nations. Glanville considers how states should support this responsibility, whether it can be coherently codified in law, the extent to which states have embraced their responsibilities, and what might lead them to do so more reliably in the future.

Sharing Responsibility wrestles with how countries should care for imperiled people and how the ideal of the responsibility to protect might inspire just behavior in an imperfect and troubled world. "This book is well written, easy to read and . . . constitutes an important reminder that the responsibility to protect is a responsibility we have to come up with and we have to take it seriously if remembrance of historical experience, as cruel and as tragic as it often has been, is of any value to mankind."---Peter Hilpold, Europa Ethnica
"Glanville offers an engaging analysis of the long history of thinking about how and why states should help prevent atrocities beyond their borders. He has done a great service for anyone interested in the evolution of the responsibility to protect as an idea and a guide to action."-Simon Adams, executive director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect "This excellent book succeeds in placing contemporary debates about protection from atrocities in their rightful historical context. Glanville deftly combines compelling insight into historical thought and practice with careful and sensitive exploration of a wicked political problem. A major contribution to our understanding of the responsibility to protect, this landmark study is sure to have lasting impact."-Alex Bellamy, director of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect "This effectively organized and informed book takes a fresh look at the responsibility to protect, and traces its longer history to show continuities and ruptures. Taking a clear stance, Glanville engages with current literature on the topic and does so from a multiplicity of perspectives and approaches, which is, in my view, a great contribution. His use of history and historiography is wise, creative, and valuable."-Davide Rodogno, author of Against Massacre