The Political Economy of The Libyan Revolution and the 'Magnanimity' of The Western Powers

Abstract

The political upheaval which started in the Middle East and swept through the North African countries of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya unleashed earth-shaking changes that uprooted the spectre of autocracy, pseudo-monarchism and political absolutism that characterised these countries. One connecting thread in their experiences was the close-circuited political system, which threw up the inevitable personalization of the state. The Libyan revolution originated from the seeming impossibility of change in the polity and the dwindling economic fortunes of the proverbial common man. Colonel Muammer Gaddafi's reputation for intolerance, the vehemence in his call on government apparatuses of force to quell the revolt at any cost and his characterization of the rebels as "rats" and "cockroaches" that must be crushed attracted international attention and provided the Western powers the needed excuse to break him; a task that had haunted them for decades. The active involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the Libyan revolution on the grounds of humanitarian considerations was ploy, which masked its real intentions. This paper examines the underlying push and pull of the Libyan revolution, the seeming magnanimity of NATO and associated institutions and argues that not only was NATO's real intention the destruction of Gaddafi and the threats he personified,. but also the procurement of unfettered access to Libya's soil