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Chiara De Franco (PhD European University Institute) is Associate Professor in International Relations, member of the Centre for War Studies and Head of the Master in International Security and Law in the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern Denmark. Previously, she has been Research Fellow in War Studies at King’s College London and coordinator of the Task Force for the EU Prevention of Mass Atrocities. Her research interests straddle the fields of International Political Communication, Conflict and Mass Atrocities Prevention, and EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. She has published books, journal articles and policy papers on the EU and the Responsibility to Protect, the EU and Conflict Prevention, European Military Doctrines and the International Media’s role in Conflict. She is a member of the executive committee of the International Communication Section (ICOMM) of the International Studies Association (ISA), an ‘academic friend’ of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), and a member of the Political Science Committee of the Norwegian Research Council. She also has a wide range of professional experiences as a practitioner, advisor or in-house scholar in various organisational settings, which include the OSCE, the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, NATO, the Club of Budapest, the Foundation for the International Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, and RAI-Italian Broadcasting Company. Collaborative activities include establishing the Nordic Protection Platform, (https://www.facebook.com/NordicProtectionPlatform/info/?tab=page_info) and participation in the DASTI scholarly network for the study of Transnational Extremist Organizations. For a complete list of De Franco’s publications see http://findresearcher.sdu.dk:8080/portal/da/person/cdf.
Competing Understandings of Protection in the European ‘Migrant Crisis’
No European government has made any substantial reference to the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ principle (R2P) during the current migrant crisis. This is remarkable since the crisis, which has gone on for the past five years, is mainly due to displacement of people fleeing from mass atrocities and crimes. At the same time, several European governments are using the word ‘protection’ with reference to European citizens and borders to justify the need of a ‘fortress Europe’. The world ‘protection’ has probably never been more popular in post-cold war Europe. At the same time, the word seems to have lost its association with R2P since the principle’s inception.
