From "Silent Protest" to Humanitarian Intervention: The Case of Libya

Abstract

The ‘Arab Spring’ phenomenon is undeniably the most significant event that has changed the political landscape of Middle East and North African region. It combined the economic and political elements of revolution with the power of social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook. The uniqueness of this revolution lies in three important components: the absence of highly organized political groups that challenged central governments; the 'virtual' or 'online' essence of these revolutions; and the persistent demand to remove de-facto leaders and institute political and economic reforms. This article focuses on the nature of Libyan revolution and evaluates contending interests of powerful global community members in response to the call for intervention, as well as their response to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine. It will analyze whether unanswered domestic demand for political and economic reforms led the Libyan people to revolt or whether revolution in Libya was itself a natural, spontaneous reaction to the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. This paper follows qualitative analysis on the basis of exiting reports on newspapers, internet sources, government policies and library materials.