The European Union and the Responsibility to Protect - Call for Papers - Extended Deadline

Under the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), states bear the primary responsibility to protect their population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The international community is asked to assist states so that they are well-positioned to fulfil their protection responsibilities. The European Union is one of a variety of regional organisations that has committed itself to the implementation of the R2P, that has acted in the spirit of the R2P and whose contribution to the R2P has been recognised by the United Nations. At the same time, the EU is facing criticism in the way it engaged with specific humanitarian crises.

The workshop will promote an intense and targeted discussion of the EU’s approach to the R2P from a variety of perspectives. The aim of the workshop is to uncover the range of policy choices preferred by the EU in its efforts to contribute to the R2P; why the EU seems to be more engaged in specific humanitarian crises and how the EU collaborates with other international actors in its commitment to the R2P, for example. The workshop will critically examine the effectiveness of the EU’s commitment to prevent atrocity crimes as a member of the international community with the aim of identifying possible opportunities for improvement.

The call for papers is open to PhD students, early career researchers and established academics. UACES members are particularly encouraged to participate. Submissions on the following issues/themes are particularly welcome, as are inter-disciplinary, theoretical and case-study based approaches:

* The EU’s engagement with specific humanitarian crises;

* A comparison between the EU’s approach to the R2P with the approach adopted by other regional organisations;

* Different approaches to the R2P by European Member States and its impact on the EU;

* The EU’s partnership with international organisations in its commitment to the R2P;

* The EU’s commitment to mediation, dialogue and conflict prevention;

* How the EU’s engagement with the R2P fits within the international legal framework and the international legal and political debate.

Abstracts of max. 250 words together with academic affiliations should be sent to Dr Julia Schmidt (j.schmidt@exeter.ac.uk) by 26 April 2019.

Decisions on accepted submissions will be made by 2 May 2019. Authors whose contributions are accepted will be invited to present their paper at the workshop and will be expected to submit their paper (max 8.000 words) beforehand. Final papers will be circulated among the participants in advance of the workshop. We will also consider organising a panel at the forthcoming UACES conference on the workshop’s topic. The most original papers may be considered for publication in an edited volume.