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ABSTRACT
There is a widespread assumption that, given the imminent threat of mass atrocities against the Libyan civilians – especially in Benghazi – and in the absence of non-military alternatives, military action against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi was a justified and necessary response. This paper challenges this widespread assumption. It argues that on the eve of NATO-led military intervention, there was no ‘clear evidence’ to suggest that the Libyan regime was on the verge of committing mass atrocities against civilians. This research also documents the range of political and diplomatic options open to the international community to engage with Gaddafi, all of which were sidetracked in favour of military action. Despite the brutality of Gaddafi’s rule, military intervention in Libya did not meet the Responsibility to Protect’s (R2P) ‘just cause’ and ‘last resort’ criteria. Far from being a successful application of R2P’s most coercive pillar, the Libyan case was a manifest misapplication of R2P's military component. An objective analysis of the Libyan crisis during February and March 2011 should have prevented the use of military force.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
About the authors
Arif Saba is a researcher at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Australia. His research focuses on Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect.
Shahram Akbarzadeh is Professor of Middle East and Central Asian Politics, and Deputy Director (International) at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization, Deakin University, Australia.
Notes
1 Daalder and Stavridis, “NATO’s Victory in Libya”, 2.
2 Kuperman, “Model Humanitarian Intervention?”, 105–36; and Milne, “If the Libyan War Was About Saving Lives”.
3 Pattison, “Perilous Nonintervention?”, 21.
4 Ibid. and Hamid, “Everyone Says the Libya Intervention Was a Failure”.
5 Kuperman, “Model Intervention?”, 132, 118.
6 Paris, “The Responsibility to Protect”, 574.
7 Pattison, “Perilous Noninterventions?”, 221.
8 See, for example, Kuperman, “Model Intervention?”
9 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (hereafter ICISS), The Responsibility to Protect, vii.
10 Annan, “Two Concepts of Sovereignty”.
11 Ayoob, “Humanitarian Intervention and State Sovereignty”, 84.
12 UN General Assembly (hereafter UNGA), World Summit Outcome Document, 138–9.
13 Ki-Moon, Implementing the Responsibility to Protect, 8–9.
14 Hehir, “The Responsibility to Protect and International Law”, 97.
15 Cunliffe, “A Dangerous Duty”, 65.
16 Evans, “UN Targets with Pinpoint Accuracy”; Thakur, “R2P After Libya and Syria”, 69; Pape, “When Duty Calls”, 62.
17 Security Council Report, “S/PV.6498”, March 17, 2011.
18 Amnesty International, The Battle for Libya, 16; Al Jazeera, “Deadly ‘Day of Rage’ in Libya”; and BBC, “Libya Protests”.
19 BBC, “Libya Protests” and International Crisis Group (hereafter ICG), Popular Protest in North Africa and the Middle East (V), 4.
20 United Nations Human Rights Council (hereafter UNHRC), Report of the International Commission of Inquiry, 30 and Kuperman, “Model Intervention?”, 109.
21 UNHRC, Inquiry on Libya, 24, 30.
22 Amnesty International, The Battle for Libya, 16.
23 UNHRC, Inquiry on Libya, 39.
24 Human Rights Watch (hereafter HRW), Libya: Security Forces; and HRW, Libya: Governments Should Demand End.
25 Kuperman, “Model Intervention?”, 110.
26 Kirkpatrick, “Hopes for a Qaddafi Exit”.
27 Williams, “Briefing”, 248–59.
28 UNHRC, Inquiry on Libya, 4.
29 UN General Assembly, “A/HRC/RES/S-15/1”, February 25, 2011.
30 UN Security Council, “S/RES/1970 (2011),” February 26, 2011.
31 Cited in Security Council Report, “Updated no.1, Libya”, March 14, 2011.
32 Cited in International Criminal Court (hereafter ICC), First Report of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to the UN Security Council Pursuant to UNSCR 1970 (2011).
33 New York Times, “Map of the Rebellion in Libya”.
34 Cited in Bellamy, “Libya and the Responsibility to Protect”, 3.
35 Kirkpatrick and Fahim, “Qaddafi Warns of Assault on Benghazi”.
36 Cowell and Erlanger, “France Becomes First Country”.
37 Landler and Bilefsky, “Specter of Rebel Rout”.
38 Bellamy and Williams, “The New Politics of Protection?”, 843.
39 Evans, “The Responsibility to Protect Libyans”.
40 Evans, “No-fly Zone Will Help Stop Gaddafi’s Carnage”.
41 Thakur, “Libya: The First Stand or the Last Post”.
42 Evans, “UN Targets Libya”.
43 Evans, “Letter: The Lesson of Libya”.
44 ICISS, The Responsibility to Protect, 32.
45 Pattison, “The Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention”, 271–7.
46 Ibid., 272 and Pape, “When Duty Calls”, 62.
47 Valentino, Final Solutions, 11–12; Jones, Genocide, 22–3; and Bellamy, Mass Atrocities and Armed Conflict, 18, Appendix I.
48 Balde, “Libyans, Black-Africans and Gaddafi's Divisive Power Struggle”.
49 Security Council Report, “S/PV.6490, 2”.
50 ICC, First Report of the Prosecutor, 4.
51 Daw, El-Bouzedi, and Dau, “Libyan Armed Conflict 2011”, 101–7.
52 Harris, “Barack Obama Defends US Military Intervention” and Daalder and Stavridis, “NATO’s Victory in Libya”.
53 ICISS, The Responsibility to Protect, 33, emphasis added.
54 Bellamy, “Libya and the Responsibility to Protect” and Pattison, “Perilous Noninterventions?”, 223.
55 Paris, “The Responsibility to Protect”, 586.
56 Gallagher, “Syria and the Indicators of a ‘Manifest Failing’”, 1–19.
57 Hollis and Smith, Explaining and Understanding International Relations, 174.
58 Hirsch, Anti-Genocide, 6.
59 Fein, “Genocide, Terror, Life Integrity and War Crimes”, 97.
60 Schabas, “Wither Genocide?”, 188.
61 Gallagher, “Manifest Failing”, 5.
62 ABC, Defiant Gaddafi Issues Chilling Threat.
63 McGreal, “Gaddafi’s Army Will Kills Half a Million”.
64 Bassiouni, Libya, 591–2 and Kuperman, “Model Intervention?”, 112.
65 Bassiouni, Libya, 505–6.
66 Walt, “Gaddafi Gets His Revenge”, 722.
67 HRW, Libya: Government Attacks in Misrata Kill Civilians.
68 Bassiouni, Libya, 593.
69 Pattison, “The Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention”, 272.
70 Kuperman, “Model Intervention?”, 111.
71 Castle, “European Leader Don't Rule Out Armed Intervention”.
72 Kirkpatrick and Fahim, “Qaddafi Warns”.
73 Reuters, Update 1-Gaddafi Tells Benghazi.
74 Garwood-Gowers, “The Responsibility to Protect and the Arab Spring”, 594–618, emphasis added.
75 Evans, “The Evolution of the Responsibility to Protect”, 32.
76 Wilson, “Inciting Genocide with Words”, 280–1.
77 Hoffmann and Okany, “Taking Prevention of Genocide Seriously”, 324.
78 Ibid., emphasis in original.
79 Benesch, “Vile Crime or Inalienable Right”, 485–528.
80 Miller, “Libya Is Not Rwanda”.
81 Cited in Shapiro and Riddell, “Exclusive: Secret Tapes”.
82 ICG, Open Letter to the UN Security Council; and ICG, Making Sense of Libya, 5.
83 ICG, Making Sense of Libya, 19; and Cherif, “We Have No Animosity Towards the Swiss”.
84 Al Jazeera, “Fresh Violence Rages in Libya”.
85 Security Council Report, “Update No.3: Libya”, February 25, 2011; and Al Jazeera, “No Let-up in Gaddafi Offensive”.
86 UN Watch, “Urgent Appeal to Stop Atrocities in Libya”.
87 Dunne and Gelber, “Argumentation and the Responsibility to Protect”, 293–5.
88 Security Council Report, “Update No.3.”
89 UN Security Council, “S/RES/1973 (2011)”, March 17, 2011.
90 Security Council Report, “S/PV.6498”.
91 Security Council Report, “S/PV.6490”, 2.
92 US Department of Defense, “DOD News Briefing with Secretary Gates”.
93 UNHRC, “Inquiry on Libya”, 24; ICG, “Making Sense of Libya”, 4–5; and Roberts, “Who Said Gaddafi Had to Go?”, 8–18.
94 Puri, Perilous Interventions, 85.
95 Kirkpatrick, “Hopes for a Qaddafi Exit”.
96 ICISS, The Responsibility to Protect, 36.
97 Evans, “Letter: The Lesson of Libya.”
98 Pattison, “The Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention”, 273; and Bellamy, “Libya and the Responsibility to Protect”, 4.
99 BBC, Libya Revolt.
100 Pfeiffer, “Update 1-Libya Rebels.”
101 Ibid.
102 UN Security Council, “S/RES/973 (2011)”, March 17, 2011.
103 Tisdall, “The Libyan Ceasefire”; and Channel 4 News, Obama.
104 Erlanger, “France and Britain Lead Military Push on Libya.”
105 Channel 4 News, Obama.
106 House of Commons, Libya: Examination of Intervention and Collapse, 19–20.
107 DeWaal, “The African Union and the Libya Conflict of 2011”.
108 African Union, Communiqué of the Meeting.
109 Shapiro and Riddell, “Exclusive”.
110 Ibid. and Becker and Shane, “Hillary Clinton.”
111 Security Council Report, “S/PV.6498”, 6.
112 Ibid., 5.
113 ICG, Making Sense of Libya, ii.
114 ICISS, The Responsibility to Protect, 34.