The development of R2P from concept to principle then to formal ratification by the UN in 2005 has been a very difficult process. R2P critics continue to question whether the notion of R2P is anything more than a list of reasonable principles. That is, governments and policy makers may be willing to support the idea of R2P, but when the need for a practical application arises, then procrastination and inaction is the result. Despite these and many other challenges, the UN General Assembly formally endorsed R2P, and all of the five permanent UN Security Council members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – supported R2P in Security Council Resolutions 1674 (2006) and 1894 (2009). In Chapter 3, we discussed the first direct application of R2P by the UN in 2007 to the humanitarian disaster in Darfur. We concluded that the international community's response in Darfur was much too slow, poorly implemented, and the outcome resulted in an ongoing humanitarian disaster.

By 2010, some African countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Senegal, Guinea and Sierra Leone were making positive progress in the areas of popular civic engagement. Democracy promotion was improving in Burma, Bhutan, Mongolia and Tonga in the Asia Pacific region, but regressing in Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia. People in North Africa and in many places throughout the Middle East struggled to have their governments recognize basic human rights and civil liberties.