ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an analysis of the failure of the 2011 Libyan revolution, and the country’s subsequent descent into a civil war. The chapter offers a comprehensive outline of the pivotal political events that have shaped Libyan politics in the past five decades. The aim has been to analyse these events via a string of explanatory casual mechanisms that help us understand the broader dynamic of how civil wars start and evolve. The mechanisms at the beginning of the Libyan conflict initiated the destabilization of the repressive rule, including the exposition of the fragmented civil society. The Qaddafi regime’s power structure had relied heavily on a continuously modified mode of interpersonal relations between the ruling family and the leading representatives of Libya’s ethnic groups and the powerful tribes. This patrimonial system of rule was sustained until the popular uprisings in the neighbouring countries emboldened anti-regime mobilization in February 2011, which erupted into country-wide protests. The rapid security deterioration, border fluidity, and international intervention encouraged the many local and regional anti-regime militias to enlarge their weapons arsenal and strengthen their ties to like-minded political elites, bringing the Qaddafi regime to its end. The chapter elaborates on the mechanisms of reproduction of the civil war, focusing particularly on the evolution of military networks and a range of triggers behind the radicalization of young people.