Libya: From Regime Change to State-Building

Abstract

This chapter examines the relations between Libya and countries in the Euro-Atlantic communities from the ousting of Muhammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011 to the present day. As this chapter shows, NATO operation Unified Protector was successful on military grounds. However, ensuing attempts to stabilise the country failed to produce significant results. The lack of meaningful EU support during the formal transition process and the interference of external actors complicated an already fragile transition. Taking stock of these lessons, Overcoming these obstacles requires involving militias in the peace process, redistributing oil revenues more equitably within Libyan society, and ensuring more effective cooperation between NATO and the EU, and among individual NATO and EU members.