Natos 2011 humanitarian military intervention in libya has been hailed as a model for implementing the emerging norm of the responsibility to protect r2p, on grounds that it prevented an impending bloodbath in benghazi and facilitated the ouster of libyas oppressive ruler, muammar alqaddafi, who had targeted peaceful civilian protesters. Libya and the future of the responsibility to protect african and. Revisiting the humanitarian intervention in libya huffpost. Humanitarian intervention, the responsibility to protect. Chapter 1 government recognition and international. Regrettably, the international community has so far wavered to intervene in syria. Responsibility to protect, humanitarian intervention and human. The responsibility to protect in libya borjana luburawinchester and reece jones department of geography, university of hawaii at manoa, u. The international community should consider humanitarian intervention in libya only after a thorough assessment of means and. This renaissance of humanitarian intervention started in the early 1990s. Part of the libyan civil war 2011 and the operation unified protector. There are many throughout the world who wonder why has there not been a humanitarian intervention in syria under the r2p doctrine. This content was written by a student and assessed as part of a university degree. This renaissance of humanitarian intervention started in the early 1990s, with prominent.
The use of force to protect civilians and humanitarian action. Humanitarian crisis in libya world health organization. The ethics of humanitarian intervention in libya volume 25 issue 3 james pattison. And this is the aftermath of an intervention which, we were told, was supposed to improve human rights in libya. Bowd expresses his third theory by noting world bank theorists collier and hoefflers greed and grievance debate.
Humanitarian intervention in libya castan centre for. The humanitarian intervention in libya in 2011 and, by contrast, the. Libya has not only failed to evolve into a democracy after the arab spring. For the purposes of this essay, i define humanitarian intervention as the use of offensive military force by a state or. Western media and politicians applauded the intervention based on the responsibility to protectr2pas a humanitarian achievement for helping replace the dictatorial qadda.
The essay analyzes the events of the 2011 humanitarian intervention in libya through a postcolonial framework. Natos humanitarian intervention in libya exacerbated. Explaining humanitarian intervention in libya and non. R2p, the decision to undertake an intervention in libya was not purely humanitarian oriented, but was rather driven by leading interveners national interests. But to determine the nature of its failure, it is necessary to examine the. Security council and a military intervention of foreign forces in libya to protect the.
Afghanistan, and despite plummeting support for humanitarian intervention in many. In this vein, while the case of libya could have been the very first example of a genuine r2p implementation, it rather became a basis for. Stories behind the westernled humanitarian intervention in libya. This article analyzes the geopolitical narratives produced by france, the united kingdom, and the united states from 15 february through 18 march 2011 as a. This essay will keep its focus on libya rather than on other countries. Libyas dissolution challenges the notion that natos intervention, ostensibly humanitarian in nature, was a success. Should unilateral humanitarian intervention be allowed. To what extent was the nato intervention in libya a. A postcolonial analysis by jennifer manning edinburgh 2015 introduction on 17 march 2011, in the midst of the arab. In the face of unspeakable acts, the desire to do something, anything, is understandable. The intervention in libya undoubtedly managed to save many civilian lives.
Pdf libya and criteria for humanitarian intervention researchgate. Humanitarian intervention has always been more popular in theory than in practice. This discussion attempts to ascertain whether personal will of enrichment greed or historical, political and socioeconomic injustices. In the post world war ii period the doctrine of humanitarian intervention has been the object of.
Earlier unilateral intervention in libya might have saved lives and prevented the larger scale war that is likely to happen now that international intervention is. Military intervention in libya overseas development institute. Meanwhile, as the first unambiguous military enforcement of the responsibility to protect norm, qaddafis utter defeat seemingly put new wind in the sails of humanitarian intervention. This book critically analyses the 2011 intervention in libya arguing that the manner in which the intervention was sanctioned, prosecuted and justified has a number of troubling implications for the both the future of humanitarian intervention and international peace and security. The first issue is whether standard accounts of the ethics of humanitarian intervention. The concepts of responsibility to protect r2p and humanitarian intervention received great attention. The case of canada 110 kim richard nossal 7 the devolution of a norm. Eufor libya was meant to add a military dimension to the humanitarian assistance operations in libya and it was agreed upon on april 1st 2011 eeas, no date, over a. It will not make use of extended historical perspectives on the background of the conflict but rather map it out in a more contemporary context. Of course, there was nothing humanitarian about the intervention.
According to the global dealings, in regards to humanitarian intervention the utilization of military constraint to counteract or stop across the board monstrosities delivered on a nonmilitary personnel populace. Based on this ostensible success, many experts now cite libya as a model for implementing the socalled responsibility to protect r2p. The next humanitarian interventions took place more than a decade later. R2p, the bosnia generation and humanitarian intervention in libya. The intervention in libya in 2011 was claimed to have been a triumph in two respects. Libya, the responsibility to protect and the future of humanitarian. Resolution 1973, authorising an intervention in libya. Libya is no model for humanitarian intervention the new. Humanitarian intervention has come to mean the use, or the threat of use, of military intervention in the affairs of another country for the sake of stopping a humanitarian disaster and protecting the people in that country from violations of human rights. Therefore, a meeting with libyan health authorities from the different parts of the country was organized in january 2015. Stories behind the westernled humanitarian intervention. Before embracing such conclusions, however, it is important to conduct a more rigorous assessment of the net humanitarian impact of nato intervention in libya. A critical analysis nguirane cheikh mimmoc ea 3812, university of poitiers, france. This think special report contextualizes the 2011 libyan civil war by outlining the historical conditions that made such a civil war possible, and even likely, and explains how the intervention of foreign.
Libyan intervention was a success, despite the aftermaths atrocities. It is said that victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. There has been strong debate about the intention behindand thelawfulness and legitimacy of the execution of the resolution by the intervening powers, in particular nato. The international intervention in the war has been presented as an ideal model for future humanitarian intervention. Accepted 26 april, 20 the westernled nato intervention in libya attracted global attention, causing a misunderstanding of the concept of humanitarian intervention. Indeed, the intervention was spearheaded by hillary clinton, samantha power and susan rice three selfdescribed warriors for human and womens rights. Kuperman writes in his policy brief, lessons from libya. In the case of natos military intervention in libya six years ago, both sides of the adage seem to apply. Which brings us to the issue of whether the law on humanitarian intervention is therefore an ass. Humanitarian intervention ethical,legal,andpoliticaldilemmas edited by j. History of conflict and international intervention in libya 4 humanitarian aid, etc. It will not make use of extended historical perspectives on the background of the conflict but. A history of conflict and international intervention in libya. The nofly zone over libya as well as bases and warships which were involved in the intervention.
Libya and the future of the responsibility to protect peace palace. The rule of law in an incoherent world ian hurd t he concept of humanitarian intervention has evolved as a subset of the laws governing the use of force and has very quickly come to occupy an institutional position alongside selfdefense and security council authorization as a legal and legitimate reason for. States have tended to be reluctant to act on such desires, however, leading to the present situation in which there are scores of books and countless articles articulating the contours of a rightor even an obligationof. The ethics of humanitarian intervention in libya ethics. Libyan intervention was a success, despite the aftermaths. Libya, the responsibility to protect and the future of. For the western democracies the oftenviolent reaction of the ruling regimes in the concerned countries caused political and moral challenges. After seven months of nato intervention, libyan rebel forces conquered the country. In terms of humanitarian intervention, the eu focused on civil protection, namely safe. This was all done at a modest financial cost, with no u. Responsibility to protect and its applicability in libya. Pdf libya and criteria for humanitarian intervention.
James pattison, humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect. During the libyan bombing campaign, many commentators argued that we were witnessing the return of humanitarian intervention and that libya demonstrated that finally the responsibility to protect had come of age. Different approaches are discernible when for the libyan case the west was willing to intervene against the regime but for the syrian case no decisive. How not to intervene, that natos so called humanitarian intervention in the north african nation actually exacerbated humanitarian suffering. The answer is that if the notion of humanitarian intervention is not to be utterly discredited, there has to be a rigorous, realistic and practical understanding of what is required. The emergence of the revolutionary movements of the arab spring in early 2011 surprised the world. In march 2011, an alliance spearheaded by britain, france, and the united states launched air strikes in libya to halt a manmade humanitarian disaster underway. The true face of humanitarian intervention rt oped. Natos action magnified the conflicts duration about sixfold, and its death toll at least sevenfold, while also exacerbating. Pdf when seeking guidelines for worstcase scenario, military intervention under the responsibility to protect looks to the just war tradition. Pdf the ethics of humanitarian intervention in libya.
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