Rudderless Libya. External powers as predators of a failed state

Abstract

[EN] Libya remains trapped in a failed state status since the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi following NATO’s illegal intervention in 2011. The country is divided between the governments of Tripoli and Tobruk, both of which function in practice as independent states. Due to the country's valuable geostrategic position in the Mediterranean Sea and its large oil and natural gas deposits, foreign powers play an active role, intervening directly or feeding their allied government, in order to gain influence in the region and protect their interests or damage those of their enemies. Libya thus is not just a land where the power vacuum is contested between various local factions that lay claim to it, but also the host of international struggles for hegemony in the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, and even the world, now that the global order is entering a multipolar era.