Open AccessHybrid Political Order in Libya: State, Non-State and Armed Actors
Author(s) -
Murat Aslan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
insight turkey
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.157
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 2564-7717
pISSN - 1302-177X
DOI - 10.25253/99.2020224.09
Subject(s) - state (computer science) , politics , political science , order (exchange) , political economy , institutionalisation , dilemma , security dilemma , power (physics) , economic system , sociology , law , business , economics , philosophy , physics , finance , algorithm , epistemology , quantum mechanics , computer science
Libya, inspired by the February 17 revolution but devastated by post-revolt challenges, is struggling to build order, as state, non-state, and external actors exacerbate the already fragile security environment. Among these actors, state and non-state actors pose a repeating and paradoxical dilemma. Libya’s post-Qaddafi state structure has been formed by non-state armed actors, and at the same time these actors threaten the survival of the state; certain non-state armed groups compete against each other to accumulate more power, while in some cases being legitimized and funded by the state itself. The root causes of this paradoxical situation can be scrutinized by investigating the security culture inherited from Qaddafi’s regime, particularly its inefficient and ignored security institutionalization, and the efforts of the competing armed groups to dominate their areas of influence in the absence of a coherent state structure.