[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-41072-en":3,"doc-seo-41072-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},41072,13056703020460,"Valentina","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/be000253dac470eee5d?_k=1778207105932848923",8,"Research & Report","R2P and the Arab Spring: Norm Localisation and the US Response to the Early Syria Crisis","The article explains why the norm Responsibility to Protect (R2P) failed to generate early action to protect vulnerable Syrians in the first two years of the crisis. It examines how US official discourse localized R2P by linking it to pre-existing ideas about America’s role in supporting democratic revolutions. Exemplarist democracy promotion aligned accountability demands with R2P, yet did not safeguard civilians. This refraction complicated the UN-sponsored peace process and offered policy lessons on the need to assess national predispositions when implementing R2P.","global responsibility to protect 12 (2020) 246-270   \n[brill.com/gr2p](brill.com/gr2p)  \nR2P and the Arab Spring: Norm Localisation and the US Response to the Early Syria Crisis  \nBenedict Docherty  \nUniversity of Sheffield, U.K.  \n[b.docherty@sheffield.ac.uk](b.docherty@sheffield.ac.uk)  \nXavier Mathieu  \nUniversity of Liverpool, U.K.  \n[x.mathieu@liverpool.ac.uk](x.mathieu@liverpool.ac.uk)  \nJason Ralph  \nUniversity of Leeds, U.K.  \n[j.g.ralph@leeds.ac.uk](j.g.ralph@leeds.ac.uk)  \nAbstract  \nThis article explains why R2P failed to motivate action to protect vulnerable Syrians in the first two years of the crisis. We focus on the United States and argue that official discourse ‘localised’ the meaning R2P by grafting it on to preconceived ideas ofAmerica’s role in supporting democratic revolutions, which is how the situation was understood. American ‘exemplarism’ demanded the US support democracy by calling on Assad to go while not corrupting the ‘homegrown’ revolution through foreign intervention. The call for political and criminal accountability aligned exemplarist democracy promotion to R2P, but it did nothing to protect vulnerable populations from the conflict that ensued. This refraction of the norm complicated the United Nations sponsored peace process, which provided an alternative means of protecting the Syrian population. We address a gap in the literature by examining Western localisation and draw policy lessons, namely the importance of examining national predispositions when implementing R2P.  \nKeywords  \nR2P – Syria – norms – localisation – United States – exemplarism  \n© BENEDICT Docherty et al. , 2020 | doi:10.1163/1875-984X-20200005  \nThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY 4.0Dinloed.ed [from Brill.com11/09/2020 10:53:03AM](from Brill.com11/09/2020 10:53:03AM)[ ](from Brill.com11/09/2020 10:53:03AM)via free access  \nR2P and the Arab Spring 247  \nSyria remains one of the most challenging of humanitarian crises and has been at the top of the international agenda for almost a decade. Various senior diplomats have spoken not just of the scale of suffering but of international society’s responsibility to protect the Syrian population from atrocities. This was apparent very early in the crisis. The Office of the United Nations Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect (R2P), for instance, issued eight statements regarding Syria between 2011 and 2013,1 and the Obama administration wrestled publicly with its sense that something must be done, accepting that ‘the moral thing to do is not to stand by and do nothing’.2 But while US foreign policymakers referenced a responsibility to protect Syrian populations, occasionally referring directly to the UN’s ‘R2P’doctrine, it was by no means certain what those references meant for practice. This uncertainty is indicative of the indeterminate character of norms; their meaning is constructed through discursive practice and is thus contingent on how agents interpret a particular situation, which can lead to contestation.3 In the case of Syria, ‘applying’ generic meanings of R2P, such as those articulated in the 2001 report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (iciss ) or in the 2005 UN World Summit outcome document, told us that something had to be done to protect Syrian populations. It did not offer uncontested prescriptions for practice. This is all the truer in this case as R2P was not the only norm or principle guiding the US response to Syria.4  \n1 Out of a total of 22 statements issued overall during 2011–2013 inclusive. UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect,‘Public Statements’, [https://www.un.org/](https://www.un.org/)[ ](https://www.un.org/)[en/genocideprevention/public-statements.shtml](en/genocideprevention/public-statements.shtml), accessed 7 February 2020.  \n2 Barack Obama,‘Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Reinfeldt of Sweden","cbCaipmpeK8WlyLf","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipmpeK8WlyLf","pdf",314307,3,1,25,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# Background: R2P, humanitarian crisis, and early Syria policy\n# The mechanism: localization of R2P in US discourse\n# Exemplarist democracy promotion and the limits for civilian protection\n# Effects on the UN-sponsored peace process and policy lessons","[{\"question\":\"Why did R2P fail to motivate early protection for vulnerable Syrians?\",\"answer\":\"The article argues that US discourse localized R2P in a way that aligned it with preconceptions about democratic revolution support, rather than producing actionable 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