Sarah da Mota * The Libyan Spring and NATO: An Opportune Responsibility Abstract In the context of popular demonstrations and political upheavals of the Arab Spring, this article addresses the 2011 intervention in Libya as a case for deepening the understanding of individual-centred security policies and how they have evolved within international interventionism. Drawing on a conceptual and normative approach of “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) and NATO, it seeks to denaturalize the idea that Operation Unified Protector is a general success, in order to uncover the underlying implications of “efficiency” in running an intervention based on R2P. It argues that there is a dissonance between the normative evolution towards ethics and military deeds, which blurs the significance of responsibility. This results in a twisted sense of cosmopolitanism, which primarily affects the referent object of security that has been dominant in contemporary interventionism, i.e., the unsecured civilian. Keywords: Libyan spring; NATO; R2P; Humanitarism. * PhD Student in International Politics and Conflict Resolution at the University of Coimbra. Her main interests of investigation have revolved around critical security studies, critical studies on terrorism, human security, civilization, US foreign policy and the Middle East. The record of her publications is available at http://www.ces.uc.pt/doutoramentos/polint/estudantes.php?act ion=info&id_investigador=577. The author can be contacted by email at: sarah.damota@gmail.com.