Description
Since its creation, the United Nations (UN) has sought to safeguard international peace and security. Be it human rights, biodiversity, or security, protection has become a buzzword that permeates all UN actions. In this article, we seek to discuss the concept of protection operationalised by the UN on three discourses, namely Human Security (HS), Protection of Civilians (PoC), and Responsibility to Protect (RtoP), because they have gained space and legitimacy through multiple actors, processes, and agendas in different historical conjunctions. To this end, we explore how these discourses manifest in the UN based on what we denominate the discursive economy of protection. Methodologically, we employ discourse analysis tools to explore UN documents that reiterate the different manifestations of protection when addressing HS, PoC, and RtoP by developing three analytical categories: threats, tutelage, and salvation. This article seeks to contribute to an emerging discussion within critical approaches to humanitarian and/or military interventions that focus on the discourses that organise, systematise, and guide the political and legal processes and actions promoted by the UN.
