LIBYA: A CASE FOR

HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION
Jeremy Kinsman
The UNs unprecedented authorization of the use of military force to protect Libyan
civilians against a forewarned onslought by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was
agreed to for a combination of humanitarian and political impulses, knowing that
allowing the crushing of Benghazi would end the Arab Spring, cheer dictators
everywhere and turn Arab youth irrevocably against Western democracies. Has the
experience validated a new international humanitarian intervention norm? Or are the
political traffic and economic costs too great, for participants and for the major
countries who had reservations to begin with? And what happens now in Libya?
Lautorisation sans prcdent donne par lONU dutiliser la puissance militaire pour
protger les Libyens contre un carnage annonc par le dictateur Mouammar Kadhafi a
t motive par des raisons aussi bien humanitaires que politiques, puisquon savait quun
massacre Benghazi signerait la fin du printemps arabe, quil rjouirait les tyrans du
monde entier et retournerait irrmdiablement la jeunesse arabe contre les dmocraties
occidentales. Lexprience a-t-elle tabli une nouvelle norme internationale dintervention
humanitaire ? Ou a-t-elle t trop lourde en cots conomiques et en tractations
politiques pour tre rpte brve chance par ses intervenants ou par les grands pays
ayant ds le dbut manifest leur rticence ? Et quadvient-il maintenant de la Libye ?

he uprising against Moammar Gadhafi has succeeded,

at least in displacing the dictator. Though won by
Libyans, the victory needed the support of a coalition of
outside countries, mostly democracies, to avert humanitarian
disaster and to neutralize the overwhelming firepower of a cruel
regime. Will the whole experience strengthen or weaken the
case for preventive humanitarian intervention in the future?
Has the experience given democratic governments greater confidence that they know now how to position themselves consistently vis--vis currents of global change, to get the trends right?
Overinvesting in the status quo, as Western democracies did for years in Tunisia and Egypt, on the grounds that
security resides in stability, was never a sound policy bias.
The status quo in the Middle East is inherently unstable.
Convincing ourselves we have overriding interests in supporting dictators who claim to be allies in a wider war,
the war on terror or the Cold War, is to put ourselves
behind the curve of history. The revelation the CIA cooperated with Libyan security authorities to render suspected
terrorists is more than a very dark chapter in American
intelligence services, as Human Rights Watch observed. It
risks lining the US up on the wrong and losing side.
Change is inevitable. Francis Fukuyama was misunderstood to predict the end of history in 1989. For many peoples Europes democratic wave ignited a narrative of hope
for themselves that is ongoing today.

Sooner or later other dictatorial regimes defined by oneperson control in Syria, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Belarus,
Equatorial Guinea will go down. Harsh theocracies in Saudi
Arabia and its sectarian rival Iran and one-party rule as in
failing Cuba and even prospering China will need to open
up to the zeitgeist typified by the Arab Spring.
Of course, democracy and human rights cannot be
exported or imported but must emerge from the people in
question. Each situation and trajectory is different. There is
no template or model.
But outside support can often tip the scales against
harsh resistance from autocrats in power.
The battles of others for their human rights are also
ours in Vaclav Havels tradition of human solidarity and
in our own strategic interest as democrats.
Anne-Marie Slaughter stated the case in Why Libya
Sceptics Were Proved Badly Wrong in the Financial Times
on August 24: The strategic interest in helping the Libyan
opposition came from supporting democracy and human
rights, but also being seen to live up to those values by the
60 per cent majority of Middle Eastern populations who are
under 30 and increasingly determined to hold their governments to account. This value-based argument was inextricable from the interest-based argument. So enough with the
accusations of bleeding heart liberals seeking to intervene
for strictly moral reasons.
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Jeremy Kinsman

nce the initially peaceful revolt

became a deadly battle pitting
untrained Libyans ragtag was the
foreign medias term of choice against
a dictator who was not going to be dislodged from 42 years of cruel rule by
peaceful protests, Western democracies
found the ball in our court, whether we
liked it or not. Averting our gaze from
explicit warning signs of a mass atrocity,
as we did in Rwanda, was not an option.
After Iraq, outside military intervention on the ground was a bad idea and
would never have won UN authorization.
But air support for the heavily outgunned
rebels could protect their chances for a
positive outcome, while, unlike in Iraq,
making the victory their own.

It was an expensive and divisive

war for European members of NATO,
only eight of which participated in
military action. Would NATO be likely
or able to do it again?
What lessons will other despots,
such as Syrias Assad, draw from the
fate of Gadhafi?
In the immediate foreground,
beyond Gadhafis downfall, how
might things turn out in Libya itself?

other goals, often under a would-be

Napoleon waiting in the wings.
That is why outside assistance,
which in chapter 1 uprisings must take
a discreet back seat to the struggles of
the people concerned, is vital for chapter 2, when, fortunately, there is the
legitimacy of government-to-government capacity-building cooperation
without risking the charge of outside
interference.

or democracy transition authority

Thomas Carothers, there are two
chapters in throwing off a dictatorship. Chapter 1 is the uprising itself.
Chapter 2 is the consolidation of democratic legitimacy that begins the

s a country, Libya was essentially an

invention of Italy, which took over
three provinces from the defunct
Ottoman regency (1551-1911) and in
1934 dubbed the cobbled-together
colony, which is 90 percent Saharan
desert, Libya. The Italians
were ungenerous colonial
After Iraq, outside military intervention on the ground was a
masters. Thrown out by the
bad idea and would never have won UN authorization. But
desert war in 1942, after three
air support for the heavily outgunned rebels could protect
decades in charge they left
their chances for a positive outcome, while, unlike in Iraq,
behind seven indigenous
university graduates and one
making the victory their own.
physician in a population of
Such authorization of proportional
a few million dispersed among more
morning after the overthrow. It is a
use of force by the United Nations Security
than 200 tribes and clans.
long, hard slog for which there is usuCouncil was unprecedented in its 66 years
After a brief period of UN trusteeally little initial preparation. Libya is
of existence, in that the UN ordered intership, the newly minted country
no exception.
national military action against a member
became an independent monarchy in
Crucial to the outcome is the abilstate to prevent an expected massacre of
1951. Its principal export was scrap
ity of a popular protest movement to
civilians within its borders, rather than
metal from the desert war. But 10 years
stay nonviolent, making the use of
after a mass atrocity had occurred. This
later, oil was discovered.
force against it difficult to justify,
was the inaugural application of the
In 1969, a coup by young military
though some authoritarian regimes
Responsibility to Protect, a new internaofficers tossed out the aged and ineffecorder the use of maximum force from
tional normative response that Canada
tual King Idris and installed as Brother
the first signs of protest.
and others urged after the horrors of
Leader Major Moammar Gadhafi.
Will troops obey orders to fire on
Rwanda and Srebrenica.
peaceful
demonstrators,
as
in
Looking back and as of this writTiananmen in 1989, Myanmar in 2007
adhafi wrought deep changes.
ing in early September the battle wasnt
or Iran in 2009? If so, their superior
Buoyed by oil revenue, the
totally over can we say the Libyan
force usually carries the day, though
regime swiftly became a radical perexperience, which clearly went beyond
not yet in Syria.
sonification of its eccentric leader,
protection of civilians, did validate a
When they refuse as in the
bent on simply eliminating any Libyan
new international norm, or has it deepMoscow coup against Gorbachev of
who objected to his complete control.
ened wariness about intervention for
1991, or on the Maidan in Kiev in
Those who think we should have
those who abstained?
2004, or in Cairo in 2011 nonvioleft well enough alone in Libya once the
For the US, has it strengthened the
lent protests often succeed.
uprising against Gadhafi began, because
case for the multilateralist approach to
But every successful uprising in
they didnt recognize our ordered socieinternational security issues favoured by
chapter 1 needs to be completed by a
ty in the helter-skelter of the disorganPresident Obama, who was glibly caricasuccessful chapter 2. If the aftermath
ized protest movement, dont get the
tured as leading from behind on the
of a popular uprising is chaotic, vioreal and wider world or why people folLibya intervention issue, in contrast to
lent and divisive, the hierarchy of
low the age-old Parisian cry of
the go-get-em bombast of adversaries
needs will click in, favouring a return
Descendez dans la rue! and take to the
on the right in the US?
to law and order and security over
streets for freedom against dictators.

82

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Libya: A case for humanitarian intervention

be repeatedly channelled by the chasnelling incoherent thoughts into a
Why do they do it? Its a challenge
tening sight.
Third International Theory.
to communicate what life is like in
Some Western journalists tended
nondemocratic societies. As James
back then to present Gadhafis
Fallows wrote in the Atlantic about
nternationally, Gadhafis rabid antieccentricity in otherworldly terms
modern China, One of the realities
Israel views were a given, but his
that recalled Michael Jackson, comhardest to convey...is how life there
antipathies stretched to the entire
plete with self-invented costumes
can be simultaneously so wide-open
world community.
and medals to go with imaginary
and so tightly controlled.
Any internationally disruptive
identities.
Libya presents less of a descriptive
cause won his favour, and finance
Bassist Ray Brown once described
challenge than China, though in the
and weapons from his oil wealth. He
the mercurial and unpredictable musilast few decades a Libyan professional
grew a kind of international stature
cian Stan Getz as a great bunch of
class also emerged whose technical
from notoriety and the boost he gave to
guys. Such was the multiple personaland English-language facility gave
dictators, the viler and more corrupt
ity of Gadhafi, though the dominant
many Westerners the impression of
the better: Idi Amin, Bokassa, Mengistu,
guy in his package wasnt sweet
stable semi-familiarity. It was an illuCharles Taylor and, of course, Robert
man-child Michael Jackson: it was a
sion from the start.
Mugabe. Recent buddies include Hugo
megalomaniac.
I saw its beginnings up close when
Chavez and Sudans Al-Bashir.
Gadhafi exuded a kind of charissent there from the Canadian Embassy
Supporting terrorism came natuma. Less aloof than other Arab potenin Algeria in 1974 to cover a lengthy
rally Black September, the Red Army
tates, he would turn on personally
Libya-hosted international conference
Faction and then the IRA.
and seemingly rationally to individon solidarity among Third World oil
By the late 1980s Gadhafi was a
exporters. The 1973 Arab-Israeli
perpetrator of mass terrorism
Crucial to the outcome is the ability himself, culminating in the
War had led Arab oil exporters to
embargo oil shipments to the
of a popular protest movement to horrific bombings of Pan Am
US. Oil imports essential to eaststay nonviolent, making the use of 103 in 1988 and UTA 772 in
ern Canada via the pipeline from
1989, which killed 259 and 171
force against it difficult to justify,
Saco, Maine, to Montreals
respectively.
though some authoritarian regimes
refineries became for a time colLibyan living standards
lateral damage, and the global
improved
with oil revenue.
order the use of maximum force
sense of vulnerability over oil
Today,
there
are a dozen unifrom the first signs of protest.
supply and arbitrary producer
versities. There are thousands
price hikes made the Libya event one we
of doctors. Life expectancy has
ual Western reporters (particularly
wanted to watch.
increased from 51 to 74 years of age.
women). It earned him slack, with
As far as oil issues were concerned
Such demonstrable economic progress
some reporting depicting him as just
it turned out to be an exercise in rhetimpressed other Africans, especially
a zany anti-establishment provocaoric without consequence.
dictators for whom Libyas political
teur, a role he relished.
But Libya showed itself to have
straitjacket was not a negative.
He did have a semi-rational agenbecome a creepy totalitarian state.
Gadhafi boasted of leading a
da at the outset, rooted in admiration
Despite Gadhafis grand pretencountry in a permanent revolution.
for Nassers socialist-nationalist revolusions to international stature, he had
In fact, the Libyan population lived in
tion in Egypt, whose adaptation to
enclosed his own country in a xenophoa permanent state of terror.
Libya won initial local popularity.
bic bubble. People were tightly surHis one-person rule, enforced by a
But it became conflated with a
veilled by revolutionary committees
security apparatus kept in the hands of
dominant personality of conspiratorial
in every apartment block and street. The
close relatives, meant there was no
and deadly cunning.
few remaining foreigners almost
chance of civil society developing as in
His method of handling the
entirely from the oil industry were
Tunisia and Egypt no unions, no
opposition was simple. He killed
isolated and monitored. Contact with
political parties, no NGOs. There was
them. By his command, Libyans died
non-Libyans who were not imported
no habit in Libya of debate, of comin the thousands during his 42 years.
labourers was reserved to ubiquitous
promise or of self-organization. It was
In 1996 his chief of security, brotherand sleazy intelligence personnel.
a population kept in a state of civic
in-law Abdullah Senussi, saw to the
infancy.
slaughter of 1,200 prisoners in
Obviously, organizing an uprising
Tripolis
Abu
Salim
prison.
Protesting
t the time, Gadhafi was pretendwould be a difficult challenge.
students were strung from lampposts,
ing to be on leave from his office
After the US invasion of Iraq in
the bodies once left dangling for a
in contemplative exile, living in
2003, Gadhafi made a dramatic U-turn
week so rerouted Tripoli traffic would
elaborate Bedouin tents while chan-

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Jeremy Kinsman
even match. At most, the rebels had a
thousand fighters with any form of training. There was no organized discipline or
tactical coordination. But there was surprisingly generalized popular support.
Initially, the council in Benghazi
put out the message that outside intervention was not wanted in the Libyan
peoples self-reliant struggle. But with
Gadhafis
armoured
Despite Gadhafis grand pretensions to international stature,
columns bearing down on
Benghazi and blowing off
he had enclosed his own country in a xenophobic bubble.
People were tightly surveilled by revolutionary committees rebel resistance with vastly
superior fire-power, its posiin every apartment block and street. The few remaining
tion changed.
foreigners almost entirely from the oil industry were
Was it a civil war of
two
opposing sides, which
isolated and monitored.
nay-sayers here believed we
should stay out of, as none of our busiIt was inevitable the Arab Spring
mustard gas, some chemical warfare preness? It had instead the convincing
that blew through Tunisia and Egypt
cursors and a rudimentary start-up
earmarks of a popular uprising against
would sweep over the less-prepared
nuclear program bought from renegade
a tyrant.
country in between.
Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan into collatGadhafis security people clamped
eral to win the embrace of his former
down hard. In Benghazi, the historic
adversaries.
n March 12, the option of humaneastern rival to Tripoli, human rights
itarian intervention became real
defender
Fathi
Terbil
(representing
the
when
the Arab League called for the
hile denying personal responsifamilies of the 1,200 prisoners slaughimposition of a no-fly zone over Libya
bility, Gadhafi also agreed to
tered in 1996) was arrested. On
to prevent Gadhafis forces from waging
official closure for the Pan Am and UTA
February 22, his network of friends
slaughter from the air.
bombings. He promised to settle billions
and supporters protested in front of
Gadhafi had thus far spoken pubof dollars on survivors, cash his oil minpolice HQ. The police opened fire,
licly only once, an odd performance in
istry gouged out of foreign oil operators
killing 40 people.
which he sat in an antique car in his
(like Petro-Canada, which crafted a
Instead of folding, the young men
compound holding an umbrella (it
dubious billion-dollar signing bonus
of Benghazi, the Shabab, fought back
wasnt raining), to denounce the forfor the Gadhafi clan in return for offwith stones and homemade bombs.
eign rumour he had fled to Venezuela.
shore exploration rights). A grotesquely
Rebellion spread with surprising speed.
On March 16, he addressed the
burlesque episode of extradition (and
Benghazi authorities, taken aback by
nation in much more ominous terms, a
eventual repatriation by Scottish courts
their motley opponents, hunkered
speech chillingly similar to radio broadon grounds of terminal illness) of
down and for a week or so in early
casts before the massacre in Rwanda.
accused Pan Am 103 perpetrator alMarch, young rebels seemed to be actGadhafi vaunted his prestige as an
Megrahi followed.
ing out a performance in an open city,
international leader. Millions defend
Often fronting business interests,
torching police headquarters and dancme...We will march to cleanse Libya, inch
visitors indeed flocked to their new antiing for news cameras.
by inch, house by house, home by home,
jihadist ally Tony Blair, Condoleezza
Meanwhile, in the liberated court
alley by alley, person by person, until the
Rice flattering his already swollen
house, a council of professionals,
country is cleansed of dirt and scum.
ego. Few visits were as inappropriate as
scholars and returned exiles began to
The following day, he specifically
Paul Martins, who made it his first visit
give organized democratic context to
addressed the defenders of Benghazi
to a foreign state after at last becoming
the uprising and to take over civic
My dear sweet people warning,
Canadian prime minister.
administration. They were the nucleus
We will find you in your closets and
Internally, Gadhafis U-turn also proof the Libyan Transitional Council,
promising no mercy.
duced a little more leeway for the emergwhose composition widened regionalFew mass murderers have so clearing middle class, in return for its
ly as the insurrection spread westward.
ly telegraphed their intentions.
continued submission, including to the
It soon became a shooting war.
increasingly obvious plan to have his son
Gadhafis armed forces moved to crush
Seif al-Islam succeed him. Seif, who
et the international community
Benghazis rebellion. It was clearly not an
threw money at Western academics to
was divided, as were political
to try to game dividends from lining
up with the West in the obsessive war
on terror.
The US and the UK especially were
attracted to the narrative of voluntary
abandonment of weapons of mass
destruction to contrast to the Iraqi WMD
fairy tale dear to George W. Bush and
Tony Blair. Gadhafi flipped stockpiles of

come for chats about democracy, played

the role of poster boy for a new spirit of
modernization and reform. But the
regime still eliminated anyone who challenged its complete control. And we have
seen and heard enough of Seif in recent
weeks calling for death and retaliation to
the rebels to know that any simulated
moderation was skin-deep.

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Libya: A case for humanitarian intervention

circles in Washington. Some sort of
intervention seemed called for, though
it was never about access to oil. Libya
isnt that important a producer and in
any case sold all the oil it could.
The case for intervention was
humanitarian, and France, in particular,
and the UK were its protagonists. After
having curried the favour of Tunisian
dictator Ben Ali, President Nicolas
Sarkozy wanted to re-set Frances reputation for human rights and no doubt win
an upward bounce in French polls by a
decisive move to stop the reviled
Gadhafi. But France and the UK needed
to broaden the ring of support. The Arab
Leagues request for United Nations
Security Council action was critical in
possibly forestalling vetoes from China
and Russia. But serious if limited military intervention would be undoable
without active American participation.
The politicians in polarized
Washington were all over the map, with
some on the right wing keen to smash
Gadhafi unilaterally, while others
(Michele Bachmann) said to stay out, an
isolationist view also prevalent on the left.
Polls detailed the war weariness of
the American public, and also international resentment over recent US interventionism. Having promised extrication
of the US from Iraq and Afghanistan, the
last thing President Obama wanted was a
third invasion by the US of a Muslim
country, especially when the US military
was already over extended. The Bosnia
and Iraq experiences with no-fly zones
had made the US military skeptical about
their deterrent effect.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
an initial skeptic, travelled to G8 and
NATO consultations and to the region
and heard first-hand of resentment from
Tunisian and Egyptian democrats that
the US didnt stand with us.
The White House came around.
Weeks later, a New Yorker piece by Ryan
Lizza quoted an unidentified White
House insider labelling Obamas compromise strategy as to lead from behind.
The misused sound bite enabled
right-wing bluster to depict the
President as weak, with GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney jumping

CP Photo

The humanitarian intervention by NATO, whose air campaign controlled the skies of Libya,
emboldened the rebels and gave them the necessary cover to push back Gadhafi loyalists
and ultimately allowed them to liberate the capital of Tripoli.

on him for following the French

into Libya.
In reality, Obamas strategy got it
about right.

y handing off to allies who by

now included Arab Qatar the
limelight of military intervention, the
US cut political exposure at home and
abroad, while blocking the dreadful
consequences of allowing Gadhafis
forces to smash the citizens of
Benghazi. It also suited Obamas own
narrative of strengthening-by-doing
multilateral capacity on peace and
security challenges.
But Brazil and India along with

permanent members China and Russia

still had worries about an interventionist override of the heretofore sacred
principle of national sovereignty.
Gadhafis explicitly threatening
speeches on the eve and day of the
Security Council decisions tipped the
balance, and on March 17 the council
adopted Resolution 1973 authorizing
all necessary means to defend the
civilian population in Libya. There were
ten votes in favour and five abstentions
predictably China, Russia, Brazil and
India but, stunningly, also Germany.
UNSC 1973 authorized intervention from the air, though as Obama
acknowledged, defending civilians and
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85

Jeremy Kinsman
forces moved against the citys defences
from outside. Ragtag rebel forces
began to acquire greater cohesion.

important and vulnerable religious

minority like Egypts Christian Copts.
Work on a draft constitutional
charter with an abundance of articles
guaranteeing human rights has been
s often happens with dictatorongoing for months.
ships, the regimes collapse
But ultimately the success of the
occurred with astonishing speed.
revolution will depend on the succesHaving pushed westward into the
sors to Gadhafi being able to deliver
Nefusa mountains southwest of Tripoli
law and order and then plausible and
itself, rebels captured the oil refinery
transparent economic management.
centre, Zawiyah, in the capitals subEssential is the effort of the
urbs, choking Tripoli off.
National Transitional Council under
Close air support is much less useful
the presidency of Mustafa Abdel Jalil to
in urban settings, but the final assault on
disband the loose constellaNow a free people, Libyans will find transition to a rule-based tion of semi-autonomous
democracy a challenge. Building viable institutions takes a lot local rebel militias spawned
by the fighting, one of
of time.
which
committed
the
reprisal murder of the NTCs military
Jordan but its heavy work was done by
Tripoli was preceded by over 40 NATO
commander, General Younis, who
NATO, despite German disaffection.
strikes on key targets. There followed a
defected from the regime.
NATOs operation has been called
headlong rush of young men wanting to
The towering advantage of Libya is
a remote-control war (though French
be part of the denouement of a regime
the sovereign wealth fund which could
and UK Special Forces were very dismore hated than its leaders in their bubtotal as much as $70 billion, which coalicreetly on the ground to provide forble could have imagined. Recalling the
tion members decided at a Paris conferward air support and also to mentor
liberation of France and the end of other
ence in September co-chaired by UK
some of the untrained rebel forces).
cruel regimes, there were incidents of
Prime Minister David Cameron and
In six months to September,
harsh street justice and settling of scores,
French President Sarkozy to begin to
NATO flew over 7,000 strike missions,
though less mayhem than Western pununfreeze. They need to go farther to help
usually more than 60 a day. Under a
dits predicted and almost no looting.
Libya in capacity building. UN Secretaryclear division of labour, French and
By September, Libya was effectiveGeneral Ban Ki-Moon has convened all
UK planes flew the bulk of sorties.
ly under the control of the National
interested parties, including the African
The critical US role was for aerial refuTransitional Council.
Union and the Arab League, to try to lock
elling and surveillance, particularly
Now a free people, Libyans will
in a critical path to support Libyas transithrough the use of Predator drones.
find transition to a rule-based demoction, including in democracy building,
(Rebels also used an ingenious miniracy a challenge. Building viable instiwhere Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird
drone developed by Aeryon Labs of
tutions takes a lot of time.
has promised robust Canadian support.
Waterloo, Ontario.) Targeting grew
The six-month experience of putincreasingly precise and kept collaterting liberated parts of Libya together,
al damage to civilians at a minimum.
city by city, offered a crash course in
he existential question of NATOs
Canadian forces contributed seven
civics, offsetting somewhat the inherpurpose in the post-Cold War
CF-18s and a few ships and tankers and
ent disadvantage of being without
world endures, deepened by a decade
surveillance craft, not to mention the
experience in building a civil society.
of no-win engagement in Afghanistan
commander of the NATO mission,
Libya does have a reasonably comthat has left allies just wanting extricaLieutenant-General Charles Bouchard.
petent managerial class, not lodged, as
tion as soon as possible.
American and British diplomatic
it happens, in an overturned governThe Libya operation showed
sources also noted that Prime Minister
ment party, like the Baath in Iraq.
NATOs comparative value in providing
Harper was a strong advocate of an airMany of the countrys best minds, driva nucleus of multinational military
and sea-based campaign, even as he
en into exile, have returned. So human
delivery when the UN Security Council
was heading into an election.
capital for a successful transition is
orders an intervention. But it was a
After a lengthy stalemate, the
potentially there, provided that factionnarrow France-UK-US-Netherlandsground war intensified westward. The
al quarrelling is kept under control.
Canada-Italy-Norway-Denmark coaliport city of Misrata, midway to Tripoli,
Libya is homogeneous in lantion, not an alliance-wide application
rose up, initiating a pattern of cities
guage, and unlike Iraq, has no sectariof purpose, especially given the abstenfalling to uprisings within as rebel
an divide among Muslims, and no
tion of Germany, which damaged
protecting the insurrection itself were
bound to become indistinguishable.
Right off, French aircraft whacked
Libyan military targets. Over a hundred US and UK sea-launched
Tomahawk missiles immobilized an
armoured column already on the outskirts of Benghazi. The whole narrative
of the confrontation changed.
Gadhafis forces were exposed in
desert positions, unable to move forward or even resupply.
The military coalition included
Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and

86

OPTIONS POLITIQUES
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Libya: A case for humanitarian intervention

lie beyond public capacity to award
points for avoiding a humanitarian disaster that might have been. Attention
shifts swiftly elsewhere, such as the
more problematic case of Syria.

of the principle of nonintervention.

British traditional diplomacy skeptic
Cairn Ross warns against over-estimating the new appetite for intervention
from such important democracies as
India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.
They earned their reservations as hisn Syria, resistance to murderous
toric victims of foreign intervention.
force from Bashar al-Assads regime
Knowing they are increasingly
has been truly heroic.
going to be more important in the
He has no doubt convinced himworlds future, they want to protect their
self that as long as NATO doesnt interpoint of view and will likely
It was inevitable the Arab Spring that blew through Tunisia and restrict their position on the
Egypt would sweep over the less-prepared country in-between. Responsibility to Protect to
one of scrutiny case by case.
One encouraging case has already
1 as $300 million. The US estimates its
vene as in Libya, he can throttle the
come before the world community,
all-important airborne surveillance and
protest movement. He counts on
almost unnoticed a few weeks after
refuelling functions at around $900 milinconsistency, that a barely approvable
Resolution 1973 on Libya, when the
lion. (Canadas costs are estimated at
intervention in Libya could not win
Security Council adopted unanimously,
$60 million.)
Russian and Chinese acquiescence in
with African Union support, a resoluOn substance, contrary to uninreplication against Syria. Assad distion authorizing the use of force to disformed guesses, NATO was not making
misses Gadhafi as an eccentric outlier,
lodge the de-elected ex-president of the
it up as it went along. Canadian
while his role as a confrontation-state
Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, hanging
General Charles Bouchard ran a coherleader puts him at the vital centre of
onto power by the force of guns.
ent game plan at NATO operational
things with Israel.
HQ in Naples that was a version of
But Assads brutality has cost him
soft military power championed by
support, including from Russia. He may
o the Libyan experience leaves
Europeans, excluding boots on the
hang on, in armed isolation, but ultimixed conclusions, with the issue
ground and military mission creep.
mately he too will go down or out,
of liberal humanitarian intervention
Obama erred in predicting, to
because that kind of personalized dictaneither fully validated nor discredited.
counter charges he was involving the
torial clique is all-or-nothing, incapable
We know Libya wont become
US in a quagmire, military engageof reform, and the young rebels seem
Sweden in a matter of months, but the
ment would be over in days, not
unrelenting in their determination.
Libyan uprising has amplified the mesweeks. But no one knew how the
The situations in Syria, Bahrain
sage of hope and courage sent out by
combination of amateur uprising on
and Yemen are more complex than
its neighbours in the winter; it has
the ground and professional support
Libyas because of sectarian divides
destabilized dictators everywhere, and
from the air would work against an
between Shia and Sunni Muslims,
that hopefully has provided the
embedded military regime. Looking
which engage the opposing interests
United Nations again with some sense
back, five to six months does not seem
of Iran and Saudi Arabia. But it is the
of utility on peace and security issues.
unreasonably long for an untried
wrong policy choice to acquiesce in
The self-immolation of Tunisian
coalition of forces to dislodge a regime
their being frozen by dictatorship just
vendor Mohammed Bouzizi that ignitthat had endured for 42 years.
because we fear sectarian conflict
ed the Arab Spring continues to rock
On US political fall out, presidential
after the hard regimes fall.
the youth of the world. The next chaphopefuls like Mitt Romney Twitter to
Lloyd Axworthy, the Canadian
ters beckon.
their grandstand within the din of negamost identified with the new doctrine
tivity surrounding Americas puerile
of humanitarian intervention by the
Contributing Writer Jeremy Kinsman served
political simplicities to try to keep
international community, wrote in the
as Canadas ambassador or high commisObama from earning political credit for
Globe and Mail that the Libyan experisioner to 15 countries or organizations,
getting it right.
ence has bolstered the emerging
including Russia, Britain and the European
Anne-Marie Slaughter invites a
norm of how international justice
Union. He currently heads a Community of
thought experiment of imagining
trumps sovereignty.
Democracies program for democracy develthe result of nonintervention by the
That is on balance probably true,
opment, and is Regents Lecturer at the
UN and NATO, allowing the West to
though bolstering doesnt allay all
University of California, Berkeley, and
let brutality and oppression triumph
suspicions about Western motives or
Distinguished Visiting Diplomat at Ryerson
again in the Middle East. But it may
reservations about ditching the primacy
University in Toronto.
Germanys leadership potential and
credibility but also Europes coherence.
Moreover, the expense of such an
operation is prohibitive to the majority
of NATO members unkeen to bump up
military expenditure at a time of budgetary austerity, even though some of the
flying participants ran out of bombs.
France, which positioned an aircraft carrier offshore and flew one-third of the
sorties, estimated its costs to September

POLICY OPTIONS
OCTOBER 2011

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