Who protects people from mass atrocities when their own state fails? This volume examines the two concepts that give this question its most demanding form: the responsibility to protect and humanitarian intervention. Both invoke human rights to justify, if necessary, the use of military force. Binding rules on when, by whom and how protection may be provided are still lacking. The volume shows that this indeterminacy is not a mere deficit. It is the very place where the politics of protection unfolds and where protection and pretext meet. The interdisciplinary contributions range from an empirical overview of interventions since 1945 to safe zones and the gendered logic of protection. With contributions by Stefanie Bock | Lothar Brock | Thorsten Gromes | Andreas Heinemann-Grüder | Lucie Kahlert | Hendrik Simon | Henning de Vries