The Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect: Performing Norm Leadership

How does the Special Adviser decide to call for the ‘responsibility to protect’ populations from atrocities? How have different postholders understood and shaped their role in practice? This article examines the ‘performative leadership’ of the Special Adviser of the United Nations Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). In contrast to the dominant approach informed by conventional models of norm diffusion, this research develops a framework which connects strategic norm-building with symbolic interaction and performativity. Given this, I argue that the postholders do not merely enact institutional scripts but ‘perform’ certain meanings of R2P, both creatively and strategically, while being deeply situated in a rigid environment with existing rules. This study brings to the fore subtle yet deep-seated contestations around R2P, which become visible with the inclusion of the Special Adviser. Methodologically, this article relies on interpretative discourse analysis of the representations of the advisers’ creative choices regarding their performances.