The Responsibility to Protect and the Transformation of Post-Conflict Societies.

This paper seeks to assess the extent to which the Responsibility to Protect has helped build international consensus around measures likely to improve the world's performance in relation to post-conflict reconstruction. The third element of R2P, the 'responsibility to rebuild' proved much less controversial than the other elements and has spawned a new institution - the UN Peacebuilding Commission. This paper opens by setting out the problems associated with 'rebuilding' and argues that it is better to conceptualise these activities as a form of 'transformation'. Key practical problems include political dilemmas about when and how to transfer political power to local actors, what sort of economy to foster, how to manage security sector reform, and how to enable local reconciliation. The second part of the paper focuses on the creation of the UN peacebuilding commission and assesses the extent to which it is likely to be able to overcome these problems. The third section focuses on the relationship between rebuilding and the R2P's concept of 'reaction'. It examines the case of Timor-Leste in order to identify problems associated with the too rapid withdrawal of international assistance and two recent cases (Sierra Leone and Burundi) where UN peacekeepers have handed over to civilian peacebuilders coordinated by the peacebuilding commission inorder to understand how this transition might be made more smoothly.The final section examines the extent to which 'rebuilding' is related to the responsibility to prevent. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]