All the King\u27s Horses: Libya\u27s Disintegration after the Revolution

Five years after the revolution in Libya that overthrew Muammar Qaddafi, the political situation in Libya has deteriorated dramatically. The destruction of the Qaddafi regime’s monopoly on violence paved the way for a profusion of armed militias, divided among regional and ideological lines, that were each able to assert control over their localized territories. This dispersal of coercive power created a “balance of weakness” within the country, with no organization, including the national authorities, able to secure a monopoly on force. The resultant chaos left the country stateless and had severe ramifications on the societal fabric and commercial networks of Libya