The 2005 World Summit led to the unanimous declaration that all states have a responsibility to protect (R2P) their own population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanities, and ethnic cleansing. Furthermore, it was agreed that, should a state manifestly fail, the international community would take over this responsibility. Despite this seemingly broad agreement of the R2P 10 years ago, more recent events in Libya and Syria have highlighted the ongoing contestation of R2P. Analysing the discourse within the UN Security Council on Libya and Syria between 2011 and early 2015, this article holds that the ongoing contestation is understandable through a critical constructivist framework, and that furthermore R2P, despite all criticism, can be credited with opening discursive spaces in which a politics of protection aimed at individual human beings, becomes possible.