This book examines India's historical responses to humanitarian crises, starting with the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, concentrating on the years 2011 and 2012 when India sat on the UN Security Council. Three serious humanitarian crises broke during its tenure - in Cÿte d'Ivoire, Libya and Syria - which collectively sparked a ferocious debate within India. Bloomfield examines what became largely a battle over 'what sort of actor' modern India is, or should be, to determine how this contest shaped both India's responses to these humanitarian tragedies and also the wider debates about rising India's international identity.

Alan Bloomfield is a former solicitor from Perth, Australia. After completing degrees in Australia and Canada in the field of international relations he is currently the Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Social Sciences at UNSW Australia.

Preface, Introduction: India and the Responsibility to Protect, 1 Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect Before 2011, 2 Discourses, Norms and Conceptual Models, 3 India and Humanitarian Intervention, and R2P, Before 2011, 4 India and the Crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, 5 India and the Crisis in Libya, 6 India and the Crisis in Syria, Conclusion: India and the Responsibility to Protect after the Crises in Côte d'Ivoire, Libya and Syria, Bibliography, Index