Alex Bellamy, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at The University of Queensland, discusses the responsibility to protect with a focus on the case of Syria.
He looks at how the ongoing conflict in Syria reflect on the issues of civilian protection and the lessons that can be drawn. With intentional killing of civilians becoming a core strategy of dozens of armed groups operating in the country, the Syrian case challenges the claim that civilian immunity has strengthened and the argument that the responsibility to protect has helped create underlying changes in support of atrocity prevention.