The EU, NATO and the Libya Crisis: Scaling Ambitions Down

In March 2011, a coalition of countries under the United Nations (UN) umbrella led militarily by NATO launched an air campaign in support of a series of revolts against the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi in Libya, ostensibly to stop Qaddafi’s reprisals on civilians. By the end of October, Qaddafi was dead and his regime had collapsed. A number of NATO countries, as well as the European Union (EU), committed themselves to supporting Libya’s stabilization and democratization. But, in fact, the intervention’s aftermath saw the disintegration of the country. The following decade was punctuated by military escalations, culminating in two further wars in 2014-15 and 2019-20, which were at the same time intra-Libyan wars and proxy wars waged by regional and global powers such as Russia, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, France, and Saudi Arabia, each supporting a local party in the conflict with weapons, mercenaries, and occasionally some regular forces.

Please have a look at this excellent analysis, written by our Advisory Board member Stefano Marcuzzi, University College Dublin, Libya Analysis LLC & NATO Defense College Foundation

https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/eu-nato-and-libya-crisis-scaling-ambitions-down-36663