Abstract

The UN has assumed significant number of humanitarian interventions worldwide since the end of the cold war However the motives behind humanitarian interventions are debated in the scholarship of international relations specially between realism and liberalism Since 2005 referenceshave been made to the norm of R2P in UN interventions which are presumed to be a pragmatic move towards pursuing humanitarian interest in defending civilians from casualty This paper aims to analyze whether the council member states have shifted from pursuing realpolitik national interest to purely humanitarian intentionusing case studies of humanitarian interventions in African conflicts in the periods before and after the adoption of R2P The paper argues that though there are limited humanitarian outcomes because of interventions especiallyafter the adoption of R2P yet the Council members national interest remains the main determinant of interventions in Africa