Watching the Syrian revolution-turned-war enter its second decade means recounting all that has been lost: innocent lives cut short, razed cities, dashed dreams. We can also mourn the squandered potential of young Syrians stuck in displacement camps missing another year of education. The estimated casualties include almost 400,000 Syrians killed and another 200,000 missing. The United Nations no longer tallies any authoritative numbers after abandoning efforts to count civilian losses three years into the conflict—one of many instances of the international community failing in its obligations to Syrians.
What is certain is that the toll is huge and that it is not limited to Syria and its people. Among the casualties—with far-reaching implications for other bloody conflicts around the world—are a number of international norms that were supposed to limit the suffering of civilian populations. The principal norm that has been shattered in Syria is the doctrine of “responsibility to protect.” Often abbreviated as R2P, the doctrine holds that the international community has not just a right but an obligation to intervene in conflicts where atrocities are being committed against civilian populations. First championed by Western countries in the 1990s and later accepted by the U.N., R2P was incapable of surviving the Syrian conflict. Its death marks a moment of failure of the international system that was emerging at the end of the Cold War. What will take its place is not yet known. As the world seems to be entering a new era of geostrategic competition and superpower polarization, there is no guarantee that a collectively acceptable humanitarian order will emerge.
