Understanding Conflict and the Responsibility to Protect

Humanitarian interventions can encompass a wide range of measures, for example, sanctions and embargoes, with military means viewed as a last resort. Recent military interventions for humanitarian purposes are an expression of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), occurring when the host state is either unable or unwilling to end its domestic conflict or uses weapons against its citizens. This book focuses on military intervention for humanitarian purposes, regarded as one of the most debated forms of external involvement. Yet research converges on structural and theoretical-level discussion. Where cases are utilised in current literature the focus tends to be on the immediate impacts or shorter-term implications. As a result, there is limited in-depth research focusing on the long-term effects of military intervention for humanitarian purposes on stability and peacebuilding, particularly in terms of real-world examples. This preoccupation has resulted in a lack of research combining a longer-term analysis with an exploration of the micro-level impacts from the perspectives of those with lived experience of such interventions. Crucially, it is the voice of the conflict-affected people, in this instance Sierra Leoneans, which is frequently neglected in research and there is a propensity to downplay narratives as a useful tool in understanding conflict. More people have died in intrastate than interstate conflicts in the twentieth century and it is estimated that by the end of this period civilian deaths outnumbered that of the military at a ratio of nine to one. This evidences that whilst military intervention for humanitarian purposes may be a contested topic, it remains necessary to expand our understanding of the phenomena. Increasing the understanding of the experience of interventions and their legacies is vital. This text makes an original contribution to these current voids in research from the perspective of those within the affected state and the international persons involved in intervention, including policy influencers and policy implementers. It applies a R2P lens to an analysis of the British military intervention in Sierra Leone: this has not been done in existing literature. By critically examining the experiences and long-term legacies of this intervention, using R2P as the conceptual framework, the relationship between intellectual debate and lived experience is also explored. This relationship is explored from the perspective of British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) employees, members of the British military, and both Sierra Leonean civilians and military. (It is acknowledged that in 2020 the FCO became the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). These participants will be referred to as FCDO throughout the book). By including the perspectives of these three groups, a novel analysis of how micro-level experiences fit together with macro-level structures and dominant narratives is enabled. This research explores four core areas: the experience of the British military intervention in Sierra Leone; its legacy within Sierra Leone; the legacy in British foreign policy; and how these groups perceive R2P in light of their experiences. The time which has now lapsed since the cessation of violence allows for analysis of the long-term legacy of this intervention and its implications, not only in Sierra Leone and on British politics, but also the impact on wider discourse and intervention globally. It intersects across domestic politics, foreign policy and global practice.