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Overlay and Transition in Libya

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Libya in the Arab Spring

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Abstract

Chapter 3 examines the revolutionary process in Libya in the context of the Arab Spring. First, it focuses on the interesting structure of the Libyan state during Gaddafi’s rule. This chapter examines the state and the process formation, internal transformation, amity/enmity relations, and the role of NATO intervention in Libya. As well as looking at the external military intervention in toppling Gaddafi, the chapter also highlights the changing dynamics in Libya state structure, power distribution and the effects of external intervention. It also assesses the outcome of the internal transformation after the revolution.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Youssef M. Sawani, “The February 17 intifada in Libya: Disposing of the Regime and Issues of State-Building”, Ricardo René Larémont (ed.), Revolution, Revolt, and Reform in North Africa: The Arab Spring and Beyond, London and New York, Routledge, 2014, p.87.

  2. 2.

    Ronald Bruce St John, Libya: Continuity and Change, London and New York, Routledge, 2011, pp.1–20; “Jamahiriya is a term coined by Muammar Qaddafi to identify Libya under his ruling, usually translated as ‘state of masses’”, Karim Mezran, “Libya in Transition: From Jamahiriya to Jumhūriyyah?”, Fawaz A. Gerges (ed.), The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014, p.309, title’s footnote.

  3. 3.

    Hereinafter will be used as Muammar Gaddafi.

  4. 4.

    Lisa Anderson, The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830–1980, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1987, p.17.

  5. 5.

    The Green Book (al-Kitāb al-Aḫḍar) first published in 1975 by Gaddafi and translated in English in 1976.

  6. 6.

    George Joffé, and Emanuela Paoletti, “The Foreign Policy Process in Libya”, The Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2011, p.185.

  7. 7.

    Dirk Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya, Second edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012, p.100.

  8. 8.

    Muammar Qaddafi [Gaddafi], The Green Book, Part I: The Solution to the Problem of Democracy: The Authority of the People, London, Martin Brian & O’Keefe, 1976; The Green Book, Part II: The Solution to the Economic Problem: “Socialism”, London, Martin Brian & O’Keefe, 1978; The Green Book, Part III: The Social Basis of The Third Universal Theory, Tripoli, Public Establishment for Publishing, Advertising and Distribution, 1979.

  9. 9.

    International Crisis Group, Popular Protest in North Africa and the Middle East (V): Making Sense of Libya, Middle East/North Africa Report No.107, 2011, p.8.

  10. 10.

    Francis A. Boyle, Destroying Libya and World Order: The Three Decade U.S. Campaign to Terminate The Qaddafi Revolution, Atlanta, Clarity Press, 2013, p.14.

  11. 11.

    Richard A. Lobban, Jr. and Christopher H. Dalton, Libya: History and Revolution, California, Praeger, 2014, p.63.

  12. 12.

    Ronald Bruce St John “Redefining the Libyan Revolution: The Changing Ideology of Muammar al-Qaddafi”, The Journal of North African Studies, Vo. 13, No. 1, 2008, p.98.

  13. 13.

    Christopher S. Chivvis, Toppling Qaddafi: Libya and the Limits of Liberal Intervention, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014, p.22.

  14. 14.

    Shaista Shaheen Zafar, “EU-Libya Relations”, Journal of European Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2009, p.136.

  15. 15.

    Nathan E. Busch and Joseph F. Pilat, “Disarming Libya? A Reassessment after the Arab Spring”, International Affairs, Vol. 89, No. 2, 2013, p.453.

  16. 16.

    Sharon Squassoni, “Disarming Libya: Weapons of Mass Destruction”, CRS Report for Congress, 2006, p.1.

  17. 17.

    Alia Brahimi, “Libya’s Revolution”, The Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 16, No. 4, 2011, p.609.

  18. 18.

    Lin Noueihed and Alex Warren, The Battle for the Arab Spring: Revolution, Counter-Revolution and the Making of a New Era, Updated Edition, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2013, pp.167–168.

  19. 19.

    Desecuritization, a concept of securitization theory of Copenhagen School, means taking subjects out of security agenda. For securitization theory see. Barry Buzan, Ole Waever and Jaap de Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis, Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner, 1998.

  20. 20.

    W. B Fisher, “Libya: (Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) Physical and Social Geography, in Lucy Dean (ed.), The Middle East and North Africa 2004, 50th edition, London, Europa Publication, 2003, p.774.

  21. 21.

    Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya, New York, Routledge, 2005, p.2.

  22. 22.

    Horace Campbell, Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya, New York, Monthly Review Press, 2013, p.26.

  23. 23.

    “Popular Protest in North Africa and the Middle East (V): Making Sense of Libya”, Crisis Group Middle East/North Africa Report No. 107, International Crisis Group, 6 June 2011, p.17.

  24. 24.

    Allison Pargeter, “Localism and Radicalization in North Africa: Local Factors and the Development of Political Islam in Morocco, Tunisia and Libya”, International Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 5, 2009, p.1031.

  25. 25.

    Abdulsattar Hatitah, “Libyan Tribal Map: Network of Loyalties that Will Determine Gaddafi’s Fate”, Asharq Al-Awsat, 22 February 2011, http://asharq-e.com/print.asp?artid=id24257 (17 December 2014).

  26. 26.

    Youssef M. Sawani, “Dynamics of Continuity and Change”, Jason Pack (ed.), The 2011 Libyan Uprisings and the Struggle for the Post-Qadhafi Future, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, p.59.

  27. 27.

    Wolfram Lacher, “The Rise of Tribal Politics”, Jason Pack (ed.), The 2011 Libyan Uprisings and the Struggle for the Post-Qadhafi Future, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013a, pp.163–165.

  28. 28.

    For a detailed study on the typology of the authoritarian rules see also; Milan W. Svolik, The Politics of Authoritarian Rule, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

  29. 29.

    William C. Taylor, Military Responses to the Arab Uprisings and the Future of Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East: Analysis from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, pp.160–163.

  30. 30.

    Horace G. Campbell, NATO’s Failure in Libya: Lessons for Africa, Pretoria, Africa Institute of South Africa, 2012, p.113.

  31. 31.

    Jason Pack, “The Center and the Periphery”, Jason Pack (ed.), The 2011 Libyan Uprisings and the Struggle for the Post-Qadhafi Future, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, p.5.

  32. 32.

    Yahia H. Zoubir and Louisa Dris-Aït-Hamadouche, Global Security Watch: The Maghreb: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, California, Praeger, 2013, pp.72–73.

  33. 33.

    “Libyan Intervention in Chad, 1980-Mid-1987”’, Global Security, 7 November 2011, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/chad.htm

  34. 34.

    Zoubir and Dris-Aït-Hamadouche, Global Security Watch: the Maghreb, pp.75–77.

  35. 35.

    Asteris Huliaris, “Qadafi’s Comeback: Libya and Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s”, African Affairs, Vol. 100, No. 398, 2001, p9.

  36. 36.

    Ricardo René Larémont, “Revolution, Revolt, and Reform in North Africa”, Ricardo René Larémont (ed.), Revolution, Revolt, and Reform in North Africa: The Arab Spring and Beyond, London and New York, Routledge, 2014a, pp.8–14.

  37. 37.

    Taylor, Military Responses to the Arab Uprisings, p.3.

  38. 38.

    Mezran, “Libya in Transition: From Jamahiriya to Jumhūriyyah?”, p.310.

  39. 39.

    Vijay Prashad, Arab Spring, Libyan Winter, Oakland, AK Press, 2012, p.148; Rosan Smits, et al., “Revolution and Its Discontents: State, Factions and Violence in the new Libya”, Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Conflict Research Unit Report, The Hague, 2013, p.15; Elvin Aghayev, “Analysis and Background of the ‘Arab Spring’ in Libya”, European Researcher, Vol. 39, No. 1–2, 2013, pp.193–198.

  40. 40.

    Mezran, “Libya in Transition: From Jamahiriya to Jumhūriyyah?”, p.312.

  41. 41.

    Larémont, “Demographic, Economics, and Technology: Background to the North African Revolutions”, pp.26–27.

  42. 42.

    Sawani, “The February 17 intifada in Libya”, p.79.

  43. 43.

    Andrew McGregor, “Can African Mercenaries Save the Libyan Regime?”, Jamestown Foundation, 23 February 2011, http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=37551#.ViDoL9LhDIU

  44. 44.

    United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1970, S/RES/1970, http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/081A9013-B03D-4859-9D61-5D0B0F2F5EFA/0/1970Eng.pdf (December 23, 2013).

  45. 45.

    United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1973, S/RES/1973, http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/Libya%20S%20RES%201973.pdf (December 23, 2014).

  46. 46.

    Alex J. Bellamy, “Libya and the Responsibility to Protect: The Exception and the Norm”, Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 25, No. 3, p.1; Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams, “The New Politics of Protection? Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, and the Responsibility to Protect”, International Affairs, Vol. 82, No. 7, 2011, pp.825–850.

  47. 47.

    Bellamy and Williams, “The New Politics of Protection?”, p.838.

  48. 48.

    Taylor, Military Responses to the Arab Uprisings, pp.158–171.

  49. 49.

    China, Russia, Brazil, Germany, and India abstained from voting on Resolution 1973, but none of the UN Security Council members opposed it.

  50. 50.

    Ali Balcı, Türkiye Dış Politikası: İlkeler, Aktörler, Uygulamalar [Tueky’s Foreing Policy: Principles, Actors and Practices], İstanbul: Etkileşim Yayınları, 2013, p.310.

  51. 51.

    Chivvis, Toppling Qaddafi: Libya and the Limits of Liberal Intervention, pp.69–94.

  52. 52.

    Maya Bhardwaj, “Development of Conflict in Arab Spring Libya and Syria: From Revaluation to Civil War”, Washington University International Review, Vol. 1, 2012, p.82.

  53. 53.

    The operation in Libya caused a debate about legitimacy, the responsibility to protect and the use of force. For more detail on these debates, see Alex J. Bellamy, “Libya and the Responsibility to Protect: The Exception and the Norm”, Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 25, No. 3, 2011, pp.1–7; Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams, “The New Politics of Protection? Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, and the Responsibility to Protect”, International Affairs, Vol. 82, No. 7, 2011, pp.825–850; Francis A. Boyle, Destroying Libya and World Order: The Three Decade U.S. Campaign to Terminate The Qaddafi Revolution, Atlanta, Clarity Press, 2013; Simon Chesterman, “‘Leading from Behind’: The Responsibility to Protect, the Obama Doctrine, and Humanitarian Intervention after Libya”, Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 25, No. 3, 2011, p.282; Aidan Hehir, “The Permanence of Inconsistency: Libya, the Security Council, and the Responsibility to Protect”, International Security, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2013, pp.137–159.

  54. 54.

    Christopher S. Chivvis, “Libya and the Future of Liberal Intervention”, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, Vol. 54, No. 6, 2012, p.74.

  55. 55.

    Chivvis, Toppling Qaddafi: Libya and the Limits of Liberal Intervention, pp.98–99.

  56. 56.

    Selin M. Bölme, Ufuk Ulutaş, Taha Özhan and Müjge Küçükkeleş, İsyan, Müdahale ve Sonrası: Libya’da Dönüşümün Sancıları [Uprising, Intervention and Beyond: Transformation Pains in Libya], Ankara, SETA Report, No.5, 2011, p.41.

  57. 57.

    Maximilian Forte, Slouching towards Sirte: NATO’s War on Libya and Africa, Montreal, Baraka Books, 2012, p.28.

  58. 58.

    Nora Bensahel and Daniel L. Byman (eds), The Future Security Environment in the Middle East: Conflict, Stability, and Political Change, Santa Monica, CA, RAND Corporation, 2004, p.315.

  59. 59.

    Omar Ashour, “Security Sector Reform and the Arab Spring”, SETA Perspective, No. 16, Ankara, SETA Publications, 2014, p.2.

  60. 60.

    Sarah Vogler, Security Challenges in Libya and the Sahel, Workshop Report, DCP-2012-U-0003450-Final, December 2012, CNA Strategic Studies, 2012, pp.2–3.

  61. 61.

    Jason Pack, Karim Mezran and Mohamed Eljarh, Libya’s Faustian Bargains: Breaking the Appeasement Cycle, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, Atlantic Council, Washington, DC, http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/Libyas_FaustianBargains.pdf, 2014, p.46.

  62. 62.

    Alan J. Kuperman, “A Model Humanitarian Intervention?: Reassessing NATO’s Libya Campaign”, International Security, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2013, p.126.

  63. 63.

    Chris Stephen, “Mahmoud Jibril’s Centrist Party Dominates Libyan Election”, The Guardian, 17 July 2012, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/17/mahmoud-jibril-party-elections-libya

  64. 64.

    Assen Agov, “The Arab Spring: Implications for Euro-Atlantic Security”, NATO Parliamentary Assembly General Report, No: 151 PC 12 E rev. 1, 2012, p.4.

  65. 65.

    Abigail Hauslohner, “Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan Released after Being Kidnapped by Militia”, The Washington Post, 10 October 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/libyan-pm-ali-zeidan-released-after-brazen-kidnapping-by-militia-assigned-to-protect-him/2013/10/10/ac6dd2d4-3196-11e3-ad00-ec4c6b31cbed_story.html

  66. 66.

    Vogler, Security Challenges in Libya and the Sahel, p.2.

  67. 67.

    Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2014: Libya Events of 2013”, January 2014, http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/libya

  68. 68.

    “Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan Ousted”, Al Arabiya News, 11 March 2014, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/03/11/Libyan-parliament-ousts-Prime-Minister-Ali-Zeidan.html

  69. 69.

    “Libya Congress Rejects New PM Ahmed Maiteg”, BBC News, 4 May 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27276153

  70. 70.

    “Libya Congress Confirms New PM Ahmed Maiteg”, BBC News, 5 May 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27285484

  71. 71.

    “Disputed Libyan PM Quits after Court Ruling”, BBC News, 9 June 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27760288

  72. 72.

    “Libya PM’s Election Declared Unconstitutional,” Al Jazeera, 9 June 2014, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/libya-declares-pm-election-unconstitutional-20146981130265348.html

  73. 73.

    Ibrahim Halawi, “Libyan Supreme Court Rules and Maetig Accepts”, The Libyan Insider, 11 June 2014, http://www.libyaninsider.com/libyan-supreme-court-rules-maetig-accepts/

  74. 74.

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  76. 76.

    Sharif Abdel Kouddous, “A Q&A with Khalifa Hifter, The Mastermind Behind Libya’s New Revolt”, The Washington Post, 20 May 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/05/20/a-qa-with-khalifa-hifter-the-mastermind-behind-libyas-new-revolt/

  77. 77.

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  78. 78.

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  79. 79.

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  1. Department of International Relations, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir, Turkey

    Ramazan Erdağ

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Erdağ, R. (2017). Overlay and Transition in Libya. In: Libya in the Arab Spring. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58772-5_3

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