Bridging the gap between Venus and Mars. Europe, the United States and Responsibility to Protect

Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has been emerging as a global norm regarding foreign policy. The emerging of R2P has led to deep consequences both for Trans-Atlantic relations and for the role of Western powers in unstable areas such as the Middle East and North Africa region. The re- conceptualization of sovereignty as a duty rather than a right opens the way to a widespread use of humanitarian intervention as a legitimate instrument of foreign policy, under the UN auspices. The formation of an increasingly solid consensus on this subject on the two sides of the Atlantic entails a progressive overcoming of the great ideological divergence which marked the first decade of the 21st century. Especially after 2001 the United States promoted an assertive foreign policy based on the idea of exporting democracy through military means, while the EU, together with some of its main member states supported a more nuanced and less interventionist approach, rooted on concepts such as normative power, example and economic engagement. The intervention in Libya but also the debate on a possible intervention in Syria demonstrated how Europeans and Americans are overcoming previous divisions and they are finding a common ground, at least from the normative and ideational point of view, on rules defining the use of force and military interventions.