Mass Violence as Post-Genocide and the Limits/Potential of Responsibility to Protect

Is the concept of Responsibility to Protect fit for purpose in a world where conflict dynamics are fluid and evolving, and global crises, such as climate change, present emerging dangers and anthropological impact? R2P, framed in response to what were conceived as typical, formative episodes of genocide (Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda) is exclusionary to emerging forms of violent conflict, impacting the concept's ability to respond to such variations of mass violence. This paper uses Mark Levene's global systems analysis of "post-genocide" to describe violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo thereby discussing and identifying the limitations of R2P as it is currently conceptualized. This paper will explain the emerging phenomena of post-genocide as an outcome of state responses, or the lack thereof to political, economic and climate crises, the systemic mismatch of R2P aspirations for holistic approaches to gross violations of human rights. It will be argued that R2P must reconsider its scope for the object of responsibility and push for new international consensus that incorporates the trends of post-genocide. Understanding climate change and civilian protection as associated conflict prevention dynamics can carry forward the work of R2P.