A Critical Assessment of Politics and Diplomacy of Post-Gaddafi Libya

Abstract

The studyassessed critically the politics and diplomacy of post-Gaddafi Libya. It interrogated the domestic and external actors in the overthrow of Gaddafi as well as the political, diplomatic and other consequences of the downfall of Gaddafi.

Overtime, researchers have contributed on the aforementioned topic with fundamental interest on the root causes of the crisis.

Most of them anchored their explanation on Centre-Periphery and dependency analysis from the Marxian Political Economy approach.

They pay less attention in interrogating the issue in terms of the aftermath or implications the crisis will have on the politics and diplomacy of Libya.

This study shall employ theoretical foundation of complex interdependence theory. We relied on secondary data source to investigate our analysis.

The study noted that the regime change in Libya has both positive and negative impact on the politics and diplomacy of post-Gaddafi Libya.

The study therefore recommends that for the country to effectively reap the benefits of the regime change, the NTC should ensure a proper democratic transition processes which will enhance popular participation and economic integration and liberation.

Introduction

1.1 Background of Study

From 1969 to early 2011, the politics and diplomacy of Libya was determined de facto by Muammar Gaddafi, who had been in power since his overthrow of the Kingdom of Libya in 1969.

Gaddafi abolished the post-1951 Libyan Constitution and introduced his own political philosophy, based on his Green Book published in the 1970s (Davis,1990:16).

Gaddafi’s system was known as Jamahiriya and was notionally legally based on the legislative General People’s Congress (GPC), consisting of 2,700 representatives of Basic People’s Congresses, and the executive General People’s Committee, headed by a General Secretary, who reported to the Prime Minister and the President (Davis, 1990:16).

The “Jamahiriya sector” was overseen by the “revolutionary sector.” This was headed by Muammar Gaddafi as “Brotherly Leader of the Revolution”, the Revolutionary Committees, and the surviving members of the 12-person Revolutionary Command Council established in 1969.

This “revolutionary sector” held office by virtue of having led the coup officially described as “the Revolution” and therefore was not subject to election.

As a consequence, although Gaddafi held no governmental post after 1980, he maintained absolute control over the country until the collapse of his regime during the Libyan civil war (Liam Stack, 2012:87).

For the first seven years following the 1969 revolution, Colonel Gaddafi and 12 fellow army officers, the Revolutionary Command Council, began a complete overhaul of Libya’s political system, society, and economy.

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