The Politics of Nuclear Non-Proliferation: A Pragmatist Framework for Analysis by Ursula Jasper

Author:Ursula Jasper [Jasper, Ursula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Diplomacy, Political Science, Political Freedom, General
ISBN: 9781136759123
Google: uT1FAQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 18790644
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

Libya's political and strategic context

Compared to the previous analysis of Switzerland's nuclear reversal, the Libyan case could hardly be more different. While Switzerland is commonly considered to be the role model for direct democracy and a prime example of functioning state institutions successfully underpinning a heterogeneous confederation, Libya is seen as the epitome of a “stateless state”: for most of its modern history, Libya was formally a sovereign country with “virtually no stable state apparatus,” as Anderson and several other authors have put it.3

Moreover, the level of interregional cooperation and interaction has been low, especially between the tribal hinterland and the urbanized coastal areas. In addition, the emergence of closer economic, cultural, communicational or political ties has been hindered – not least by Libya's Italian colonizers.4 The cultural, and above all tribal, genealogical differences that have existed among Libya's three constituent regions – Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan – since ancient times have significantly shaped the country and continue to shape even the modern state, thereby preventing the emergence and fostering of a local classe politique.5 For the majority of Libyans, the main political arena consisted of traditional decision-making procedures based on local and regional groupings, while social cohesion was primarily based on tribal structures and kinship linkages – or, in a wider sense, based on the common Islamic faith. These also remained the primary sources of identity even after the country's independence in 1951.6 The establishment of the monarchy – a political concept that did not root in Libya's political culture – did little to change this situation: the entrenchment of the national state and its political and administrative institutions within the local population remained weak.7 In addition, the dismal economic situation – before the discovery of vast oil and gas resources in the late 1950s – further contributed to the structural weakness of the state.8

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