The Responsibility to Protect Debate: An Enduring Black Hole

The Moral Untouchability of the Responsibility to Protect' is an insightful critique of the academic debate on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) (Hobson 2022).As Hobson notes, within this debate, R2P's supporters greatly outnumber critics.As a result, critical reflections on R2P can be obscured; a superficial reading of the academic literature on R2P can thus give the false impression that R2P works and that this view commands broad support within academia.My intervention here is not intended to add anything to what I have previously said; rather, by providing reflections from my own experiences of engaging with the R2P debatewhich I eventually left -I aim to echo Hobson's critique and thus demonstrate that his is not a lone voice.I conclude with suggestions as to potentially useful future research on R2P.