Brazil and the Responsibility While Protecting Initiative: Norms and the Timing of Diplomatic Support

This article examines Brazil’s responsibility while protecting (RwP) initiative as an example of norm sponsorship available to nonpermanent members of the Security Council. After setting the stage with Brazil’s historical engagement with intervention issues, it discusses the reasons behind the Brazilian initiative. It examines RwP’s key proposals and the reactions they generated. RwP’s normative implications are discussed, together with an examination of the main reasons why Brazil’s sponsorship of the initiative waned following its exit from the Council. Brazil’s withdrawal from sponsoring RwP highlights the need for ongoing support for initiatives that seek to revive the international community’s intervention practices by tackling the basic tenets of discord over R2P’s implementation.