The protection of civilians is a highly topical issue, which has been at the forefront of international discourse and taken a prominent role in many international deployments during recent years. It has been at the centre of debates on the NATO intervention in Libya; UN deployments in Darfur, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and the failures of the international community in Sri Lanka and Syria. Variously described as a moral responsibility, a legal obligation, a mandated peacekeeping task, and the culmination of humanitarian activity, it has become a high-profile concern ... More

The protection of civilians is a highly topical issue, which has been at the forefront of international discourse and taken a prominent role in many international deployments during recent years. It has been at the centre of debates on the NATO intervention in Libya; UN deployments in Darfur, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and the failures of the international community in Sri Lanka and Syria. Variously described as a moral responsibility, a legal obligation, a mandated peacekeeping task, and the culmination of humanitarian activity, it has become a high-profile concern of governments, international organizations, and civil society, and a central issue in international peace and security. The Protection of Civilians is an edited collection offering a multidisciplinary treatment of this important topic, harnessing perspectives from international law and international relations, traversing academia and practice. Moving from the historical and philosophical development of the civilian protection concept, through relevant bodies of international law and normative underpinnings, and on to politics and practice, the volume presents coherent cross-cutting analysis embedding the realities of diplomacy and mandate implementation in the academic discourse. In doing so, it engages a series of current debates, including on the complementarities and conflicts within the foundational bodies of law, the role of politics and diplomacy in what has often been characterized as a humanitarian endeavour, and the challenges and impacts of the use of force.