International Norm Dynamics: the International Criminal Court's struggle for relevance and al-Assad's claim to act ‘for humanity’ in Palmyra

At our November event Alan Bloomfield will present some of his recent work with Kurt Mills in the dynamics of international norms. Their work focused on how African states have resisted the anti-impunity norm and the constitutive norm of the International Criminal Court (ICC). They found that the ICC was struggling to remain relevant and that its constitutive norm was weakening in the face of widespread non-cooperation and defection: Burundi withdrew from the ICC in October 2017 and South Africa and Kenya look set to follow.

Alan will also outline an upcoming project that will explore Syrian President Assad’s claim that his campaign to expel Islamic State from the ancient city of Palmyra in April 2016 was undertaken to prevent further damage to the famous World Heritage-listed site, and was, therefore, ‘for humanity’. The implied deference to anti-plunder and anti-desecration norms is questionable: al-Assad’s forces have readily bombed culturally significant sites like Krak de Chevaliers and Aleppo’s Old City.  But, despite not actually being motivated by these important international norms, by ‘playing to the crowd’ al-Assad has nevertheless unwittingly strengthened them. Both cases demonstrate that, while words matter, actions speak louder.  Or, in academic jargon, behavioural compliance has a much greater impact on norm-strength than discursive affirmation.

About the Speaker

Alan Bloomfield is a Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Western Australia. He researches Australian and Indian foreign policy.

His first book, India and the Responsibility to Protect, was published by Ashgate in 2015. He also researches international norms, in particular the Responsibility to Protect or ‘R2P’ norm, as well as norm dynamics theory, and he edited the 2017 Routledge book Norm Antipreneurs and the Politics of Resistance to Global Normative Change. He has also published articles in leading journals including Review of International Studies, Pacific Review, Contemporary Security Policy, Australian Journal of Politics and History, and India Review. 

Headline photograph by By © Guillaume Piolle /, CC BY 3.0,