Lecture by Dr Aidan HEHIR: "The End of the Responsibility to Protect? Humanitarian Intervention and Post-Conflict Reconstruction after Libya"

On 12 March 2015, Dr Aidan HEHIR, Reader in International Relations and Director of the Security and International Relations Programme at the University of Westminster, gave a lecture at the Natolin (Warsaw) campus of the College of Europe.

In his talk, Dr HEHIR assessed the impact of Libya on perceptions of the efficacy of both humanitarian intervention and post-conflict reconstruction. Though initially heralded as welcome evidence of the Responsibility to Protect in practice, Libya has become increasingly synonymous with failure and regularly cited as a negative causal factor in the Security Council’s ineffective response to Syria. Dr HEHIR also discussed the factors that aligned to impel the initial intervention and highlight the lessons to be learned from the degeneration of the state during the post-conflict reconstruction phase. 

The lecture was part of a preparatory lecture series for the Falcone-Borsellino students taking part in the study trip to Tunisia, which took place from 16 March until 19 March 2015.

About the speaker:

Dr Aidan HEHIR is a Reader in International Relations and Director of the Security and International Relations Programme at the University of Westminster. He gained his PhD in 2005 and has previously worked at the University of Limerick and the University of Sheffield. His research interests include humanitarian intervention, statebuilding, and the laws governing the use of force. He is co-convenor of the BISA Working Group on the Responsibility to Protect and is currently working on an ESRC-funded two-year project on "The Responsibility to Protect and Liberal Norms". He has published widely, including the following books:

• Libya, The Responsibility to Protect, and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Co-editor);
• Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction, 2nd Edition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 & 2013);
• The Responsibility to Protect: Rhetoric, Reality and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012);
• International Law, Security and Ethics (Routledge, 2010 & 2014. Co-editor),
• Kosovo, Intervention and Statebuilding (Routledge, 2010. Editor),
• Humanitarian Intervention after Kosovo (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008);
• Statebuilding: Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2007 & 2009. Co-editor).