SCENARIO
You are the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor – i.e., the senior U.S. Government official charged with monitoring and promoting human rights around the globe. The administration in which you serve is led by a President whose National Security Strategy explicitly embraces the R2P doctrine.
A vicious civil war between government and rebel forces is underway in Erehwon, a small, fictitious country of about 2 million inhabitants in the Horn of Africa. Rebel forces are largely composed of members of the Djimali ethnic group, who are concentrated in the Djimal region. International aid workers and UN officials have reported that military and paramilitary forces on both sides have carried out atrocities against civilians since the conflict began.
Erehwon was a Soviet client state during the Cold War, and the government has continued to maintain cordial ties with Moscow. The Erehwonian Government has also been seeking closer relations with China and is currently negotiating with China to construct a new port on the Gulf of Aden.
The U.S. has few security, commercial, or other interests in Erehwon. Only a handful of Americans lived in Erehwon before the conflict, and most have already left.
In recent weeks, the civil war has turned even more brutal. Rebel forces have been routed and have retreated to Djimal. A vindictive Erewhonian President has publicly vowed to crush the remnants of the rebel force and to expel or kill all Djimalis encountered on Erehwonian territory.
Four days ago, Government jets bombed a rebel-run camp for displaced persons. Almost 200 civilians were killed in the attack on the camp, which is located inside Djimal. Intelligence reports indicate that the Government is massing land forces just outside of Djimal. All major international media outlets are present on the ground in Djimal and have been reporting continuously from the region.
In the U.S. and across Europe, activists, parliamentarians, private citizens, and Djimali expatriates are calling on Western governments to protect the people of Djimal.
The Administration is considering whether an intervention of some kind is warranted and whether it should explicitly invoke R2P in any decision it makes. The Secretary of State, your boss, sees echoes of Libya 2011 in the current crisis. He has asked you for a briefing about the Libya experience in order to help shape his own thinking.
INSTRUCTIONS
Your task is to prepare a 5-6 minute video in which you consider the following questions. (You may address other issues beyond those included in these questions as well.)
- Was the 2011 Libya experience a successful application of R2P? Why or why not?
- What lessons did we learn from Libya regarding R2P? What worked well and what did not?
- How did the 2011 Libya intervention impact international endorsement of R2P in theory and practice?
- Taking into account the experience of the Libya intervention, how could the USG most successfully pursue an internationally-backed intervention in Erehwon on R2P grounds?