To the Shores of Tripoli http://www.foreignaffairs.

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March 21, 2011

SNAPSHOT

To the Shores of Tripoli

Why Operation Odyssey Dawn Should Not Stop At Benghazi

Dirk Vandewalle
DIRK VANDEWALLE is Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College.

As Catherine Ashton, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and
security policy, wrote in a March 18, 2011, New York Times editorial about the European
Union’s options in Libya, “sometimes the toughest question in world politics is: ‘And then
what?’” In light of the furious pace of the negotiations surrounding the previous day’s
adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1973 -- which extended a no-fly zone over Libya
and authorized the international community to take whatever additional measures
necessary to protect the country's population short of sending ground troops -- it is not
surprising that no one had really stopped to consider her question. Indeed, more time
seems to have been spent getting the European Union, the Arab League, the G-8, and the
Security Council to agree on the language than on the content. Still, if those hurried
diplomatic negotiations seemed a Herculean task, they may pale in comparison to the
challenge that comes next: keeping Libya intact and on the road to recovery.

For his part, U.S. President Barack Obama promised that intervention would be short -- a
matter of "days, not weeks." And British Prime Minister David Cameron admonished that
international involvement should be limited to stopping Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi’s
violence. Both caveats will prove unrealistic.

At this point, the international community has two options: to either protect the opposition
movement in Cyrenaica, the vast eastern province in which Benghazi is located, but not
force Qaddafi out of power, or make Qaddafi’s ouster an explicit goal. The former seems to
be what Cameron had in mind when he spoke of selective containment -- perhaps in an
attempt to sanitize international involvement. It was also echoed in Obama's call for
short-term intervention. Still, this kind of containment is neither possible nor feasible.

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To the Shores of Tripoli http://www.foreignaffairs.com/print/67504

Indeed, it would defeat the very logic of Resolution 1973.

Of course, ongoing military strikes will undoubtedly strengthen the rebels’ resolve. Seeing
the destruction wreaked by the international coalition, Qaddafi loyalists are unlikely to put
up much opposition. Even if the strikes stopped in the course of a cease-fire, rebels would
likely take advantage of Qaddafi’s weakness to try to push the remnants of his assault
forces westward, reigniting the fighting.

If international action simply contained Qaddafi by halting his advance, he would be left in
control of Tripolitania, the northwestern province in which Tripoli is located, leaving
Cyrenaica effectively independent. The two provinces are divided by long-standing tensions.
Qaddafi historically neglected the economy of Cyrenaica, because he judged the tribes in
those areas to be potentially disloyal. And tensions between the two provinces were further
exacerbated by Qaddafi’s attempts to play each off the other in order to stay in power.
Protecting half of the country while leaving the other to Qaddafi would harden the provinces’
resolve to go their own ways. And economically speaking, that would be possible; both
provinces have oil fields to rely on for revenue.

But politically speaking, such a division would be disastrous. In Tripolitania, Qaddafi would
still have the resources and territory to continue to wage war against the opposition. If the
brutal state terrorism Qaddafi instituted in the 1980s to secure Libya’ position in the region
is any indication, he would not hesitate to do so. Even if he does observe a future
cease-fire, selective containment would allow him to play a long-term cat-and-mouse
game, stopping violence while surreptitiously extending his reach into the eastern part of
the country by manipulating or buying such Cyrenaican tribes as the Warfalla, a powerful
group that has so far adopted a cautious wait-and-see policy.

Meanwhile, the weapons that flowed through Libya’s porous borders and into the hands of
Cyrenaican opposition forces during the anti-Qaddafi campaign will leave the regional tribes
substantially more powerful than before. Having suffered through Qaddafi’s violence against
them and then emboldened by Western intervention on their behalf, they would be ready to
fight back at all cost. Thus the specter of all-out intertribal and interprovincial warfare
would rise once more.

A Libya with Qaddafi in even partial control would be unacceptable to the international
community; the country would be highly unstable and a real liability to North Africa and
Europe. The world’s inability or unwillingness to displace an unreconstructed Qaddafi would
give succor to a number of groups, including al-Qaeda, that could seize chaos in Libya and
North Africa as an opportunity to extend their influence. Indeed, Qaddafi’s threat to turn the
Mediterranean into a zone of instability is a reminder of precisely what a divided Libya could
yield.

Internal instability aside, there is another reason why selective containment is unwise: it
would severely constrain the international community’s future options. It seems inevitable

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that EU and U.S. efforts will successfully drive Qaddafi's forces from Benghazi. But selective
containment would require them to stop there. Given Qaddafi’s rhetoric of the past few
weeks, it seems unlikely that they would be able to pressure him into any kind of settlement
from such a position. Further, it is improbable that, having achieved the limited objective of
securing Cyrenaica relatively quickly, the United Kingdom and France, the leaders of the
intervention forces, would be content to settle rather than march on to Tripoli to dislodge
Qaddafi himself.

Of course, the alternative, forcing Qaddafi out of power, is fraught with its own problems
and complications. Qaddafi’s departure would leave behind a political vacuum that would
need filling as soon as possible. The choice of local interlocutors would be key. For all the
sympathy the international community may currently feel for the opposition movement
headed by the Libyan National Council, the provisional government, it would have to be
cautious about unconditionally supporting it. Indeed, the threats that the LNC is already
issuing should give the international community doubts about its readiness to lead in
democratic government. Throughout the conflict, the LNC has threatened that there will be
dire consequences for those countries in the West that had not sufficiently supported the
rebel side if it won.

It is worth noting that although there is as yet no other opposition group, the LNC is
national only in its aspirations. Much of Tripolitania still genuinely supports Qaddafi and
would likely be resentful of whatever took his place and refuse to join an LNC-led
government. To overcome antagonism between the provinces and to guide the country
through the arduous process of state building and reconstruction that would follow
Qaddafi’s departure, institutions would need to be truly national and representative. Since
the settling of scores seems inevitable in Libya after decades of Qaddafi’s deliberate divide-
and-rule policies, the international community would need to help establish a Libyan version
of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that brought political opponents in South Africa
to some kind of understanding. Meanwhile, the international community would also have to
steer the development of democracy and good governance in a country that has not known
anything except tyranny for decades.

It is only such a process of democratization and reconstruction that would truly lessen the
salience of Libya’s enduring divisions. The reintegration of Libya with its North African
neighbors after decades of self-enforced isolation under Qaddafi would also help. After
years of ostracism, reintegration in the region could bring some measure of pride and
responsibility to Libyans.

For all of this to happen, Libya, in addition to removing Qaddafi from power, needs what
Ashton called in her article a “Marshall plan for North Africa” that would help a post-Qaddafi
Libya (and other countries in the region) start building their states, developing their
economies, and improving democratic governance through a number of educational,
economic, and political initiatives. Libya's survival as a unified country will not only depend

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on how its own citizens deal with its long-standing fissures but also on the careful planning
of outside powers.

Unless the United States and the European Union reach a decision quickly, they may wind
up in a self-imposed stalemate that Qaddafi could exploit. The international community
needs a proactive agenda and a clear plan for the intervention, starting now.

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