Abstract
The book, well edited by Daniel Silander and Don Wallace, primarily focuses on recognising the commitment and responsibility of international organisations (IOs) in the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) paradigm. The book in general aims to answer the question: ‘What formal responsibility and actual capacity do international organisations have to protect and prevent civilians from systematic mass atrocities?’ (p. 3).
The book contains twelve chapters divided into three parts. The first part, consisting of chapters 1–3, focuses on the notion of R2P and the role set out for IOs in terms of R2P and the nature of failing states, Syria in particular. This part addresses failing states as the black holes in international politics that pose grave challenges to international and human security. Chapter 3 specifically discusses the ongoing Syrian crisis.
The second part of the book (chapters 4–11) emphasises the different IOs and their roles and responsibility in implementing R2P with regard to human rights in crisis situations. These chapters offer a thorough discussion of eight organisations in terms of their formal responsibility to implement and ability to address R2P challenges before, during and after mass human rights violations, both generally and in regard to Syria.
The third part – chapter 12 – summarises all of the chapters and analyses the overall responsibility and capability of IOs with regard to R2P.
The book is an informative read and will be of interest to scholars specialising in IOs and humanitarian crisis. The editors state that the ‘complete absence’ of efforts by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in resolving and addressing the Syrian crisis has led to the absence of IOs in the field, despite their capacity. The book shows its ultimate potency towards the end when Silander and Wallace ask: if ‘we’ believe in a world free of human atrocities, should we just ‘relent and submit’ to a ‘paralysed UN’ and are ‘we’ to understand that the human rights of the West are not ‘universal’?