International Relations Overview Assesment

Running head: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
International Relations
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Background
The intervention of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Libya is one of the
historical events in the peacekeeping across the entire world. It was in the year 2011 when the
NATO forces entered the country, there were many problems that were going on within Libya.
This was done so the United Nations Security Council 1973 could be implemented. This
resolution had been done signed by France, United Kingdom and Lebanon. The government of
Libya could not manage the situation because they could gun down a single plane used by the
forces of NATO.1
On the other hand, it should be said that French air jets launched heavy attacks through
air strikes. They launched attack on the military vehicles and destroyed them completely.
According to the reports by media, it has been found that civilians had been attacked in Libya by
Gaddafi.2 The challenges were thrown directly on Gaddafi and his supporters. Therefore, it must
be said that the allied NATO forces wanted to put an end to the disruptive practices of the
Gaddafi regime. The Libyan government was controlled by Gaddafi and his unethical practices
were the biggest reasons for the intervention of NATO to save humanity.3
1 Nato.int. 2020. "Homepage". NATO. https://www.nato.int/.
2 Beresford, Alexander. "A responsibility to protect Africa from the West? South Africa and the NATO intervention
in Libya." International Politics 52, no. 3 (2015): 288-304.
3 Al Nahed, Sumaya. "Covering Libya: A framing analysis of Al Jazeera and BBC coverage of the 2011 Libyan
uprising and NATO intervention." Middle East Critique 24, no. 3 (2015): 251-267.

2INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) by NATO was the reason why they intervened. The
analysis of the role of NATO must be done to come to a conclusion if these actions were
justified. Libya did not protect its citizens from genocide and they even carried on with this
social evil. In order to understand other reasons for intervention of NATO, one must surely
understand the chronological factors behind this historical move. The conditions of Libya in the
21st century declined in terms of its human rights and international inventions were highly
needed to stop the inhuman torture to which civilian people were subjected to. It was very
evident from the scenario that the regime of Gaddafi had civilians as their target.
The main attempt of NATO was to protect the civilians of Libya from the grasp of this
torturous regime. United Nations urged NATO to take some positive actions so those people
could be saved from mass destruction. In the year 2011, the coalition forces of NATO allies
combined and they went on with their military operations to save the common people of the
country.4 Many people were rendered as shelter less in those vicious attacks by Gaddafi regime.
There were high chances of insurgency if they got any external help from neighboring countries.
The mission by NATO was named Operation Unified Protector (OUP).This operation went on
for few months and it was successfully concluded by allied forces on 31st day of October of the
same year.
In this course, some situations are responsible for this incident in this region. Previously
in the year 1986, forces of the United States conducted bombing in Libya. The code name of this
mission was Operation El Dorado Canyon. Airstrikes had been conducted on Libya on 15th of
April in the year 1986. The operation was completely carried out by US navy, US Marine Corps
4 Nato.int. 2020. "Homepage". NATO. https://www.nato.int/.

3INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
and US Air Force. Around 40 Libyan people died but a plane was shot down by Libya too. This
began the overall tensions between the two countries Libya and United States. Moreover tensions
were also raised on the Western countries whom Libyans through to be enemies. According to
the reports, it had been claimed that daughter of Muammar Gaddafi, Hana Gaddafi had been
killed in this strike. As a result of these events, Libya had responded very quickly when they
fired two Scud missiles at Lampedusa, an Italian island. This was the marine coast guard station
for United States of America.
They also believed that America declare every country to be an outlaw or terrorist if they
did not agree to become a vassal for them. Due to all these events, Gaddafi went on to make an
internal revolt and destroy the allies of America in no time. Though it was known Gaddafi was
not in the scene of public sphere between the times of 1986 and 1987. In the later years,
Government of Libya had ordered to hijack the Pan Am Flight 73 at Pakistan in the year 1986
only.5 In this incident around 20 people had died. This proves the terrorist activities to which
Libya was indulged. The situation was going out of control and Australia discarded any foreign
relationships with Libya saying they were attempting to encourage the violent terrorist activities
within the country.6
The Libyan civil war came to existence when the armed conflicts were fought between
the loyal people of Gaddafi and people who wanted their government to fall. The Libyan
5 Nato.int. 2020. "Homepage". NATO. https://www.nato.int/.
6 Beresford, Alexander. "A responsibility to protect Africa from the West? South Africa and the NATO intervention
in Libya." International Politics 52, no. 3 (2015): 288-304.