46 - Arab Uprisings: Libya | The First Civil War

Das Criminal

On the 14th of January, 2011, Tunisia — Libya’s neighbor to the northwest — toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and vowed to establish a democracy in the small country. Less than a month later — on the 11th of February, 2011, Egypt — Libya’s neighbor to the east — overthrew its authoritarian president, Hosni Mubarak. A few days later, protests began in Benghazi, Libya, attempting to oust Libya’s longtime ruler, Muammar Gaddafi.

But despite being sandwiched between Tunisia and Egypt, Libya’s revolt and its consequences bear significant distinctions from the previous uprisings we’ve covered — most notably NATO’s intervention and the country’s descent into two civil wars as a direct result of these events. To this day, Libya remains in crisis; this past week, for instance, 43 men from West Africa drowned off the Libyan coast while trying to depart for Europe.

The case of Libya forces us to examine the ‘just war’ theory often purported by Western governments to justify foreign intervention. How did Libya go from one of the most prosperous African nations to a land of chaos in such a short time? How is it similar to and notably different from the uprisings we’ve already discussed — Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain? And how can we take a nuanced approach to international solidarity and critical support without enabling imperialist intervention?

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