The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and this calls to question why NATO still exists today. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO has militarily intervened in many sovereign countries such as Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, while also expanding membership to the very borders of Russia. Although NATO was once united with the purpose…
The series of debilitating military setbacks that Libya’s renegade general Khalifa Haftar suffered in recent months have spurred diplomatic activities over the conflict in the country. But the war is far from over. Haftar’s dream of capturing Tripoli from the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj has been…
Europe is progressively being sucked into the Middle East and North Africa’s myriad conflicts. As if wars on its doorstep in Libya and Syria were not enough, UAE support for an Eastern Mediterranean pipeline that could hurt Qatar economically — combined with Greek, Cypriot and French opposition to Turkish moves — leaves Europe with few,…
One of the greatest difficulties Libya faces is the restoration of legitimacy to governance and the reconstruction of the State. The ‘transitional’ arrangements for governing Libya were imposed by the ‘international community’ after NATO destroyed the country’s State institutions and infrastructure with massive bombardments in 2011, supposedly to enforce a ‘no-fly zone’ imposed by a…
“Conflicts in NATO bleed into Libya”, “Washington with Ankara in Libya to spite their regional allies”, “NATO back to the Libyan dossier”. These are some of the headlines in Arab media, commenting on the role of external factors in recent events in Libya. This is constantly on the front page whenever armed conflicts arise between…
It’s often said that the EU plays no role whatsoever in the conflict in Libya and takes no side. And given that Italy, being the odd man in Europe, supports the incumbent government and its ragtag coalition of soldiers and militias it employs fighting under the so-called GNA – whereas most EU countries are more…
