A Postcolonial Critique of Responsibility to Protect in the Middle East

Abstract

This article is a postcolonial critique of the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect R2P in the Middle East. It problematizes a selective, arbitrary and punitive implementation of international law in Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Libya and Syria. It proposes that the hegemonic neo-liberal discourse of Humanitarianism and a paternalistic legacy of Orientalism have reinforced policing language of human rights and widened the gap between the ethical norms and their practice in global politics. A postcolonial critique of R2P calls for decolonizing and emancipating global ethical norms from the hegemonic discourse of neo-liberal order; striving for a consistent, just, people-centered, and fair implementation of norms; pushing for radical reforms in the UN; empowering regional and subaltern organizations; mobilizing world public opinion; and democratizing the world order. It suggests that a just implementation of the R2P doctrine is pending on the accomplishment of R4J: Responsibility for Justice

Keywords

• Responsibility to Protect R2P , postcolonialism, orientalism, Middle East, geopolitics, realpolitik, global war on terror.

References

1. Edward Said, Orientalism, New York, Vintage Books, 1979.
2. Immanuel Kant, “Toward Perpetual Peace”, in M. J. Gregor, trans. M. J. Gregor (eds.), Practical Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 311-352.
3. Siba N. Grovogui, “Postcolonialism”, in Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki and Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theories: Disciplines and Diversity, 3rd ed.,Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 252. 8 Ibid., p. 254. 9 Ibid., p. 255.
4. The UN General Assembly resolution 2391 adopted The Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity; adopted 26 December 1968, 754 UNTS 73, at http://www2ohchr.org/english/law/warcrimes.htm (last visited 3 May 2015).
5. Gareth Evans, The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All (2008), p. 5; see, Mojtaba Mahdavi, “R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?”, p. 258.
6. ICISS Report, “The Responsibility to Protect”, International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), xi.
7. United Nations Charter, Chapter IX, at www.un.org/aboutun/charter (last visited 10 September 2015).
8. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations, Secretary General Office, Secretary- General Defends, Clarifies “Responsibility to Protect”’ at Berlin Event on ‘Responsible Sovereignty: International Cooperation for a Changed Word’, SG/SM/11701, New York, Department of Public Information, 15 July 2008.

9. Mahdavi, “R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?”, pp. 258-259.
10. Grovogui, “Postcolonialism,” p. 256.
11. Ramesh Thakur, The United Nations, Peace and Security: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 267.
12. See Mahdavi, “R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?” p. 260.
13. Mamdani, Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror, p. 273. 27 Ibid., p. 276.
14. Ibid., p. 282. Italics added.
15. Ibid., p. 275. Italics added.
16. Rice calls for Mid-East democracy, BBC News, 20 June 2005.
17. “Obama’s Mideast Speech,-”, The New York Times, 19 May 2011.
18. W. Andy Knight, “The Development of the Responsibility to Protect- From Evolving Norms to Practice”, Global Responsibility to Protect, Vol. 3 (2011), pp. 3-36.
19. Mahdavi, “R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?”, pp. 260-61.
20. Mahdavi, “R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?”, pp. 261-263.
21. Barry Lando, Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush, New York, Other Press, 2007, p. 83. 38 Ibid., p. 98. 39 Ibid., p. 185.
22. D. Cortright and G. Lopez, The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s, Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner, 2000, p. 46. The number of the children death ranges from a quarter million to half a million in different sources.
23. UNSC Report to the Secretary-General on Humanitarian Needs in Kuwait and Iraq in the Immediate Post-Crisis Environment by a Mission to the Area Led by Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, UN Doc.S/22366, 20 March 1991.
24. Rome Stature, Article 7(2); see also Core Crimes prepared by the Coalition for the International Criminal Court at http://www/iccnow.org/documents/FS-CICC- CoreCrimesinRS.pdf (last visited 8 July 2015).
25. For an interesting collection on this issue, see, Mokhtar Lamani and Bessma Momani, (eds.), From Desolation to Reconstruction: Iraq’s Troubled Journey, Waterloo, Wilfrid University Press, 2010.
26. Kenneth Roth, Fernando R. Tesón and Paige Arthur, “Ending Tyranny in Iraq: A Debate”, at http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/resources/transcripts/5268.html (last visited 10 July 2015).
27. For an interesting analysis, see, Craig M. White, Iraq the Moral Reckoning: Applying Just War Theory to the 2003 War Decision, Lanham, Lexington Books, 2010.
28. Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, New York, Nation Books, 2007, pp. 91-104 and 117-139.
29. On 22 April 2011, a US federal appeals court reopened the criminal case against 4 members of Blackwater involved in the Nisour Square shooting. However, justice is still not done.
30. “Iraq Body Count: Documented Civilian Deaths from Violence”, Iraq Body Count, at http://www.iraqbodycount.org (last visited 6 May 2015).
31. “The Iraq Situation”, at http://www.unhcr.org/iraq.html (last visited 6 May 2015); Ms. Parker is President of the San-Francisco-based Association of Humanitarian Lawyers (www.humanlaw.org) and Chief Delegate to the United Nations for the Los Angeles- based International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project (IED/AHL), an accredited non-governmental organization on the U.N. Secretary-General’s list; See www. consumersforpeace.org (last visited 7 May 2015).
32. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/07/iraq-electricity-idUSL6E7J707Q20110807
33. Mahdavi, “R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?” pp. 261-263.
34. Ibid., pp. 263-64.
35. For example, USA vetoed UNSC resolution, which asked for the condemnation of Israel for killing 18 Palestinians, mostly children, in Beit Hanoun in 11 November 2006.
36. Final Report of theGoldstone Fact Finding Mission at http://www.diakonia.se/sa/node. asp?node=3134 (last visited 6 May 2015).
37. Amnesty International, “Gaza Accountability Campaign - Background Information”, at http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and- occupied-palestinian-territories/gaza-accountability-campaign-backgro (last visited 8 July 2015).
38. “Amnesty: Israeli strikes on Gaza buildings ‘war crimes’,” at http://www.bbc.com/news/ world-middle-east-30393540 (last visited 26 March 2015). 58 Ibid.
39. Statement by John Ging, UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza, at http://www.unrwa. org/etemplate.php?id=357 (last visited 5 July 2015).
40. Mahdavi, “R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?”, pp. 263-264.
41. Ibid., pp. 265-267.
42. Grovogui, “Postcolonialism”, p. 256; italics added. 63 Ibid.
43. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sc10200.doc.htm (last visited 15 June 2015).
44. http://parliamentflagpost.blogspot.com/2011/03/libya-and-united-nations-security.html (last visited 10 June 2015). 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid.
45. Mahmood Mamdani, “Libya after the NATO Invasion”, at http://english.aljazeera.net/ indepth/opinion/2011/04/201148174154213745.html (last visited 26 June 2015).
46. http://allafrica.com/stories/201109201529.html (last visited 30 June 2015).
47. Algeria, Iran, Syria and Venezuela condemned the use of force. President Chavez of Venezuela blamed the West and insisted that this was another war for oil.
48. Richard Falk, “In Libya, Decoding an Uncertain Future”, at http://aljazeera.com/indepth/ opinion/2011/08/201182885646839710.html (last visited 16 June 2015).
49. Mahmood Mamdani, “Libya: Politics of Humanitarian Intervention”, at http://english. aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201133111277476962.html (last visited 11 June 2015). 74 Ibid.
50. Phyllis Bennis, “Libya and the Limits to the R2P”, at http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/libya_ and_the_limits_to_the_r2p (last visited 12 June 2015). 76 Ibid.
51. Grovogui, “Postcolonialism”, p. 259.
52. Ibid. The oil reserve in Libya is also a point of contention. It is worth noting that Libya holds one of the finest, largest, and cheapest oil reserves in the region.
53. Richard Falk, “In Libya, Decoding an uncertain future”, at http://aljazeera.com/indepth/ opinion/2011/08/201182885646839710.html (last visited 15 December 2014).
54. Mahmood Mamdani, “Libya: Politics of Humanitarian Intervention”, at http://english. aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201133111277476962.html (last visited 11 April 2015); Mahdavi, “R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?” pp. 265-67.
55. Grovogui, “Postcolonialism”,p. 259.
56. S. Seth, “Postcolonial theory and the critique of International Relations”, Millennium, Vol. 40, No. 1 (2011), p. 174. Italics added.
57. Mahdavi, “R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?” pp. 267-69.
58. Grovogui, “Postcolonialism,” p. 264. 85 Ibid., p. 263. 86 Ibid., p. 256. 87 Ibid., p. 263. 88 Ibid., p. 256.
59. Donald Rumsfeld, Department of Defense News Briefing, 12 February 2002.
60. Slavoj Zizek, Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle, London, Verso, 2004, p. 10 quoted in Colin Moores (ed.), The New Imperialists: Ideologies and Empire, Oxford, 2006, p. 3.
61. Mahmood Mamdani, “Libya: Politics of Humanitarian Intervention”, at http://english.aljazeera. net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201133111277476962.html (last visited 11 May 2015).
62. ICISS 2001, p. 19.
63. Marie-Joelle Zahar, “Taking One Talk, Waking Another: Norm Entrepreneurship and Canada’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East”, in Paul Heinbecker and Bessma Momani (eds.),Canada and the Middle East in Theory and Practice, Waterloo, Wilfrid University Press, 2007, pp. 51-52.
64. Jeffry Sachs and John MacArthur, “Promises Aren’t Enough”, Global and Mail, 22 April 2005, quoted from Marie-Joelle Zahar, “Taking One Talk, Waking Another: Norm Entrepreneurship and Canada’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East”, p. 51.
65. Zahar, “Taking One Talk, Waking Another”, pp. 51-53.
66. Steven Edwards, “Conservatives Reversing Canada’s Position at UN”, National Post, 16 November 2006 quoted from Marie-Joelle Zahar, “Taking One Talk, Waking Another: Norm Entrepreneurship and Canada’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East,” p. 62.
67. Zahar, “Taking One Talk, Waking Another”, p. 55.
68. Joan Brydon, “Liberal Leadership Hopeful Ignatieff Admits Gaffe over Mideast Conflict”, Canadian Press, 10 August 2006 quoted from Zahar, “Taking One Talk, Waking Another”, p. 55.
69. Kofi Annan, “Freedom from Fear”, chapter 3 of “We the Peoples – The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century”, Millennium Report of the Secretary General of the United Nations, at www.un.org/millennium/sg/report/full.htm (last visited 6 April 2015).
70. Mamdani, Saviors and Survivors, p. 276.
71. Walter Mingolo, “Epistemic Disobedience and the Colonial Option: A Manifesto”, Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2011, pp. 44- 66.
72. Mahdavi,“R2P in the Middle East and North Africa?”, pp. 257-275.
73. Grovogui, “Postcolonialism”, p. 263.
74. See, Mojtaba Mahdavi, “Muslims and Modernities: From Islamism to Post-Islamism”, Religious Studies and Theology, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2013), pp. 57-71.