Rudiments of Responsibility: R2P as a Rudimentary Model of Practice

Abstract The practice turn in international relations theory has made empiricism the foundation for theoretical development. As effective as this has been, there is a trend in this literature to look at forms of international life that are thickly constituted. This paper offers a supplementary “rudimentary” model of practice theory useful for understanding broad, diffuse patterns of international politics. Rudiments are defined as practices that are simultaneously enacted in relation to the same focal point, in the process creating a structured realm of possibility for international action. A rudimentary model is helpful for studying distributed forms of international behavior that are reliant upon practices but not reducible to one in particular. The international intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992–1995) is used as an illustration of how rudiments define the structured possibility for the Responsibility to Protect. The intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina is engaged because it is one of the key spaces where existing practices were associated with mass atrocity response. This association prefigures R2P and, as such, studying it allows one to better understand the norm’s politics.