ABSTRACT
This chapter argues some constructivist scholars work within the same theoretical implant and ontological and epistemological assumptions as traditional liberals and realist international relations (IR) scholarship. It explores the possibility of adopting an archaeological approach to the study of normative formations in international organizations. The chapter offers an archaeological analysis of the emergence of norms of humanitarian intervention as the organizing concept for the UN role in international security. It highlights the migration of idioms of human security from the epistemic context of development and disaster management to the one of international security. The chapter outlines how new political rationalities for intervention and objects of international power were created, uncertainties, debates, and conundrums that these changing linkages between normative claims produced. It also outlines the migration of the notions of responsibility to protect (R2P) and human security from discourses of sustainable development and emergency management to international security.
