Since the end of the Cold War, the protection of human life has been a key priority of the international community. Though France has been at the forefront of these humanitarian efforts – steering debates at the United Nations and standing in opposition to wars and conflicts worldwide – its role has been overlooked and its international role in and long-standing commitment to human protection underestimated. Eglantine Staunton offers a compelling corrective to the prevailing assumptions about France’s foreign policy, examining its relationship to the dominant international principles established by the humanitarian intervention of the 1990s and the UN’s Responsibility to Protect doctrine in 2005.

Combining case studies of the interventions in Kosovo, Rwanda and Iraq, among others, and interviews with key actors including Gareth Evans and Bernard Kouchner, Staunton’s innovative theoretical framework offers a valuable tool for understanding the interplay between domestic and international norms.