Nato And The Politics Of Humanitarian Intervention In Libya

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the link between North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Politics

of Humanitarian Intervention in Libya. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as a

geopolitical region controls a large share of the world’s crude oil deposit, which guzzles easy

money into the hands of its leaders. This enables the leaders to constantly have strong grip on

state power by either buying off or silencing opposition and dissent voices. The study

explains how economic interest of the NATO alliance led to humanitarian intervention in

Libya. It also analyzed how the need for democratization led to the intervention of NATO

allied forces in Libya. The power theory was used as our framework of analyzing the

championing of the NATO allied forces interventionist mission in Libya that saw to the

ousting of Muammar Gaddafi under the aegis of hegemonic stability, through which they

(United States) were able to generate support against Gaddafi for contravening United

Nations Resolutions and the humanitarian emergencies that the civil war in the country

generated. Data for the study was gathered through observation of the secondary sources like

books, journals, Internet, official documents et cetera. Our method of data analysis which

involved giving a qualitative description to quantitative information brings simplicity and

coherence to our work and this was supported by the adoption of one-shot case study as our

research design for controlling the variables under study. The study suggests that the United

Nations except in proven cases of genocide should avoid the employment of force in the

settlement of intrastate dispute. This will encourage parties to the dispute to employ

diplomacy and dialogue rather than violence with the hope of attracting humanitarian

intervention of powerful states. Our conclusion was also anchored on the findings of the

study.