This book provides an in-depth introduction to, and analysis of, the issues relating to the implementation of the recent Responsibility to Protect principle in international relations.

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was endorsed by the General Assembly of the UN in 2005, and unanimously reaffirmed by the Security Council in 2006 (Resolution 1674) and 2009 (Resolution 1894). The book includes an introduction to the issues relating to the implementation of the Responsibility to Protect principle in international relations.

'Alex Bellamy, one of the most competent students and advocates of the 'responsibility to protect' (often abbreviated as 'R2P'), provides a very timely and useful account of the origins of this notion, of its evolution, and of its successes and failures between 2005 (when it was endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations) and 2010.' - Pierre Hasner, Survival, Vol. 53:5, Oct - Nov 2011 'Alex Bellamy here builds on his previous book on the subject (published 2008) which greeted the establishment of R2P as a key aspect of how the world would be (politically) managed in the new millennium. This new book, revealingly subtitled "From Words to Deeds" examines, after the first five years of formal establishment, what impact R2P has actually had. [...] Bellamy's book will find its way on to essential reading lists almost immediately.' - Christopher May, Lancaster University, Political Studies Review, Vol 10:3, Sept. 2012