The proliferation of fragile states in Africa has accentuated the pressing need for stabilization efforts on the continent's peace and security landscape, particularly as an approach by the West. The universal quest for a sustainable compact of peace in the aftermath of military interventions has reinvigorated debates in policy and academic circles around the uptake of concepts such as the responsibility to protect and jus post bellum; and how they inform the broader debate around moral imperatives to rebuild post-conflict societies. This article seeks to analyse the convergences and divergences between the responsibility to rebuild and jus post bellum and the extent to which they inform the broader conceptual and normative debates around stabilization, peacebuilding and statebuilding. The case study of Libya, in the aftermath of the 2011 NATO-led intervention, presents an insightful entry point into the ethically charged debate on responsibilities, obligations and duty to rebuild post-conflict societies while shedding light on the contending narratives in the post-conflict normative discourse