The United Nations Security Council passes resolutions that invoke multiple norms including the protection of civilians (PoC), the responsibility to protect (R2P), and counter-terrorism. The fact that these norms are invoked alongside one another raises questions about how they interact. While there have been studies on the relationship between PoC and R2P, as well as R2P and counter-terrorism, as far as the authors are aware, this is the first study that analyses the interplay between all three norms. To do this, the article utilises the concept of ‘norm clusters’ to discuss the internal structure of PoC, R2P, and counter-terrorism prior to analysing the linkages between them. The article proposes that PoC, R2P, and counter-terrorism can be viewed as a ‘human protection norm cluster’ but also highlights areas of tension and overlap between the three norms. At the empirical level, the article explores these dynamics in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (minusma). Although all three norms embody the value of human protection, our findings evidence, first, these norms are not given equal weight, second, they are not mutually reinforcing, and third, even though counter-terrorism plays a more peripheral role, it has a detrimental impact upon PoC.

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This article examines the limits of state-led norm entrepreneurship in the case of the UK and the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative. The UK-led Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative emerged in 2012 and accelerated to the tipping point and beginning of the norm cascade by 2014. However, the Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative has since struggled to sustain similar levels of UK-led entrepreneurship where resources and institutional support have stagnated and declined. This article argues that the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative is evidence of how a norm that originally benefits from powerful state-led entrepreneurship to the point of cascading has to be maintained by consistent state support to prevent its progress from slowing, and potentially stagnating, at a significant moment in its evolution. The article contributes to research on norm entrepreneurship, the norm lifecycle, and analysis of the reasons why the UK’s entrepreneurship on the Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative has gradually stagnated when compared to its initial considerable investment in leadership and support.