Canada's role in facilitating the conceptualisation of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) was not a grand achievement unattainable by any other state. Instead, where Canada is deserving of some notoriety is in its decision to take a position of leadership on the issue. The RtoP leadership initiative is a prime example of the strength and pull a middle power can have in shaping discourse and normative developments regarding international law and policy. Below, Canada's previous government's human security policy, which was a cornerstone of international leadership on issues such as RtoP, is contrasted with the current government's foreign policy approach, which has failed to produce similar deliverables or contribute towards the continued development of RtoP.

The development of a multi-state mechanism for conflict prevention is not a unique concept originating from the doctrine of RtoP. Investigations into preventive safeguards against the escalation of conflict have been a matter of debate for quite some time. In recent history, the trend includes the 1993 Mechanism for Conflict Prevention of the Organisation of African Unity, measures put in effect by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and a number of Conflict Prevention Assessment Missions undertaken by the European Union. What seems absent from these models, and the importance of which has been highlighted through the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide and deliberate targeting of civilians in Kosovo and Srebrenica, is an inclusion of tangible commitments on behalf of regional intergovernmental organisations or the international community; in effect, there is a gap between rhetoric and a wide degree of possible action which would fall under the RtoP paradigm. Hovering above these models, and previous discussions surrounding conflict prevention, has always been the sacrosanct reverence for state sovereignty. The mass human rights atrocities of the mid-1990s allowed for a refocused perspective on sovereignty with regard to the rights and duties of the sovereign.

The Canadian Adoption of the ‘Human Security’ Agenda

The Mulroney Government (1984-1993) made improving United States (US)- Canadian relations a priority following the ‘neglectful’ Trudeau era, which had emphasised ‘The Third Option’ in relation to the superpowers’ struggle for global domination and Canada's economic dependence on the US.