Libya: Whither peace, democracy and stability?

Libyan diplomat and writer Giuma Bukleb looks at how the legacy of chaos and the political vacuum seeded by the regime of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, coupled with Libya’s geostrategic location and its oil wealth, turned the country into “a battleground for competing local and foreign interests” and “led to the emergence of new opportunistic political elites lacking the necessary qualifications and tools, helped by militias”. “The way out,” he argues, “is not impossible if the international community paid Libya the necessary attention and provided the desperately needed help, by forcing the competing foreign interests to withdraw, and by disarming the militias.”