The article discusses the concept of the responsibility to protect, which says that countries should step in to protect people if their own government fails to do so. The U.N. Security Council's decision to use military force in Libya in 2011 was seen as a positive step for this idea. However, the article argues that the U.S. government's main reasons for intervening in Libya were to protect its own interests, not just to fulfill the responsibility to protect. This could weaken the principle of responsibility to protect and make it seem like powerful countries are using it for their own gain. The article suggests that to truly promote the responsibility to protect, interventions should be driven by a genuine desire to prevent atrocities, not just by national interests.