R2P Niche Diplomacy and Norm Development in Times of Politicization: A Look at Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Small states often conduct niche diplomacy. They focus their limited resources on advocacy in specific policy areas. For example, some promote human rights-based norms such as the responsibility to protect (R2P) and advance those norms' social recognition in United Nations discourse. However, given the R2P's politicized status, niche diplomacy in this realm has become increasingly difficult. This paper focuses on three small liberal states supporting R2P: Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Drawing on data from speeches and interviews, it analyses how these states engaged rhetorically with the R2P between 2017 and 2022. It identifies the divergent meanings that these states attach to R2P, and thus contributes to scholarship on norm support and contestation. Denmark has continually supported R2P initiatives, while Sweden and the Netherlands have prioritized accountability. From a critical constructivist perspective, these Western states' diplomacy reflects different 'meanings-in-use' for R2P, which contribute to either norm reproduction or norm adaptation. Explicit R2P diplomacy strengthens the norm in the long term, while supporting this agenda without reference to R2P may help achieve other desired policy outcomes in the short term. The latter approach, however, challenges parts of the R2P norm by contributing to its contested status and narrowing scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]