ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the normative theory that undergirds the promotion of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the various attempts that have been made to sharpen and refine this theory in response to the disappointments of the past 15 years. A commitment to pacifist or non-violent principles would draw the sting out of many critiques of R2P and would allow for the kind of morally consistent advocacy that is not currently available while a militarised response remains available. Violent humanitarian crises are always exceptional situations, and it is in the exception that norms, whether weak or strong, ambiguous or clear, find their limit and the sovereign is left to decide. Russia's decision to militarily intervene in Syria represents an example of the impossibility of an objective or a political determination as to when intervention is necessary and which side in a violent conflict should be supported.
