Security and informality in Libya: militarisation without military?

ABSTRACT

The article interrogates the analytical purchase of the concept of militarism in the case of Libya, and its relationship to securitisation. While Libya is often associated with widely securitised threats to the international order, its military institutions have been viewed with suspicion and ambivalence across different phases of Libyan history, making of Libya an uneasy fit for standard categorisations of militarism. This prompts the question of whether and under what circumstances militarism can occur without and even against the military. Drawing on a historical-sociological analysis, the article shifts the focus to micropolitical dynamics and extra-institutional agency with a view to unpacking the complex entanglement of formal and informal armed actors in Libya’s hybrid security governance. The concepts of informalisation of militarism and militarisation of informality are used as analytical lenses to reconstruct the partial, failed, contested and hijacked attempts to build ‘modern’ military institutions in Libya. I suggest that the repertoire of militarism is not so much an end in itself, but a resource mobilised by local and international actors in a contentious field of state-building practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Militarism
• informality
• hybridity
• securitisation
• Libya

Acknowledgements

This work was carried out thanks to the financial support for the research by the EU Commission Horizon 2020 Project EUNPACK – Good intentions, mixed results. A conflict sensitive unpacking of the EU comprehensive approach to conflict and crisis mechanisms [H2020-INT-05-2015], Grant Agreement n. 693337.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya.

2. Bagayoko et al., ‘Hybrid Security Governance in Africa’.

3. On the concept of informality, see for instance Polese, Limits of a Post-Soviet State.

4. Vagts, A History of Militarism, 13.

5. Shaw, Post-Military Society, 15.

6. Decalo, Coups and Army Rule in Africa; First, The Barrel of a Gun; Welch, Soldier and State in Africa.

7. Stavrianakis, ‘Legitimising Liberal Militarism’.

8. Bacevich, The New American Militarism.

9. Basham, War, Identity and the Liberal State; Stavrianakis, ‘Legitimising Liberal Militarism’; Abrahamsen, ‘Return of the Generals?’.

10. Gallien, ‘Informal Institutions’.

11. Lutterbeck, ‘Arab Uprisings, Armed Forces’, 39.

12. See Shaw, ‘Twenty-First Century Militarism’.

13. Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya.

14. Lacher, ‘Fault Lines of the Revolution’.

15. Frowd and Sandor, ‘Militarism and its Limits’.

16. Hameiri and Jones, Governing Borderless Threats.

17. Mann, ‘The Roots and Contradictions’, 35; Mann, Incoherent Empire. For a similar approach, see also Stavrianakis and Selby, Militarism and International Relations.

18. Mabee and Vucetic, ‘Varieties of Militarism’, 5.

19. Mann, ‘Authoritarian and Liberal Militarism’, 235.

20. Mabee and Vucetic, ‘Varieties of Militarism’, 7.

21. Jarstad and Belloni, ‘Introducing Hybrid Peace Governance’.

22. Sandor, ‘Border Security’.

23. Decalo, Coups and Army Rule in Africa; Welch, Soldier and State in Africa.

24. Adly, La Rivoluzione Libica.

25. Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya.

26. Mann, Incoherent Empire, 17.

27. Quesnay, ‘L’insurrection libyenne’.

28. Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya.

29. See for instance Reno, Warlord Politics and African States.

30. Anderson, The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya; Lutterbeck, ‘Arab Uprisings, Armed Forces’.

31. Shaw and Mangan, ‘Enforcing “Our Law” When the State Breaks Down’, 103.

32. Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya, 184.

33. Lutterbeck, ‘Arab Uprisings, Armed Forces’; Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya.

34. Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya.

35. Shaw, Post-Military Society, 15.

36. Gaddafi, The Green Book.

37. Ibid., 19 [emphasis added].

38. Ibid., 77.

39. Abrahamsen, ‘Return of the Generals?’.

40. Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya.

41. Ellis, The Mask of Anarchy.

42. Abrahamsen, ‘Blair’s Africa’.

43. Becker and Shanefeb, ‘Hillary Clinton, “Smart Power” and a Dictator’s Fall’.

44. Adler-Nissen and Pouliot, ‘Power in Pratice’.

45. Guéhenno, ‘The United Nations’.

46. Abrahamsen, ‘Blair’s Africa’.

47. Ross, ‘How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War’?

48. Ivaschenko-Stadnik et al., ‘How the EU is Facing Crises’.

49. Becker and Shanefeb, ‘Hillary Clinton, ‘Smart Power’ and a Dictator’s Fall’.

50. Sawani, ‘Security Sector Reform, Disarmament, Demobilization’, 183.

51. Posen, ‘The Security Dilemma’.

52. EEAS, ‘EUBAM Libya Initial Mapping Report’.

53. Quesnay, ‘L’insurrection libyenne’.

54. Cole and Mangan, Policing Libya.

55. Lacher and al-Idrissi, Capital of Militias.

56. Akl, ‘Militia Institutionalisation’, 19.

57. Sawani, ‘Security Sector Reform, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration’.

58. Lacher and al-Idrissi, Capital of Militias.

59. Akl, ‘Militia Institutionalisation’.

60. Sizer, Libya’s Terrorism Challenge.

61. Aurn, ‘Militants, Migrants and the Med’. However, subsequent research has demonstrated that, in the case of Libya, controversial right-wing organisations have contributed to inflating media anxiety, despite the lack of conclusive evidence. See Toaldo, ‘Migrations Through and From Libya’.

62. Özdamar and Devlen, ‘Man vs. the System’.

63. Lacher, ‘Le conflit libyen’.

64. See for instance Megerisi, ‘Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia’.

65. Perouse de Montclos, ‘La politique de la France au Sahel’.

66. For a balanced analysis of Russia’s policy towards Libya, see Toaldo, ‘Russia in Libya’.

67. UN, ‘Interim Report of the Panel of Experts on Libya’.

68. SIPRI, SIPRI Yearbook 2017; Stavrianakis, ‘Legitimising Liberal Militarism’.

69. ICG, ‘Libya’s Unhealthy Focus’.

70. Noria Research, Predatory Economies in Eastern Libya.

71. Council of the European Union, Council Conclusions on Libya.

72. EEAS, ‘Libya, a Political Framework’, 2.

73. Eaton, ‘Libya’s War Economy’.

74. Lacher and al-Idrissi, Capital of Militias.

75. UN, ‘Interim Report of the Panel of Experts on Libya’.

76. Tubiana and Gramizzi, Tubu Trouble.

77. EEAS, ‘Strategic Review’.

78. UN, ‘Interim Report of the Panel of Experts on Libya’.

79. See for instance El Kamouni-Janssen and de Bruijne, Entering the Lion’s Den.

80. Micallef and Reitano, The Anti-Human Smuggling Business.

81. Loschi et al., ‘The Implementation of EU Crisis Response in Libya’.

82. Micallef and Reitano, The Anti-Human Smuggling Business, 2.

83. The article was under review when Haftar launched its attack on Tripoli. At the time of writing, the outcome of this operation remains highly uncertain.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Luca Raineri

Luca Raineri is a research fellow in security studies at DIRPOLIS institute of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa, Italy. His research deals with the linkages between security, development and governance in Africa, focusing in particular on the impact of informal networks and extralegal economies on transnational security in the Saharan-Sahelian area.