The Libya Crisis: The Process of Conflict and the Outlooks of its Resolution

All the efforts made to put an end to the Libyan crisis have failed and the country is still a scene for conflict among the warlords. This paper is written with the aim to explain the process of conflict in Libya and to depict the outlooks of transition to peace based on the existing trends. The main argument is that the tribal structure of the Libyan society, the policies of the previous government of Muammar Gaddafi in managing the tribes through a divide and rule mechanism together with building a coalition of the tribes loyal to the head of the state as well as the interests of the foreign countries involved in the conflict are the main reasons for continuation of the conflict in Libya. Although diminishing of the rivalries between the regional powers and the European countries readiness to accept collective initiates have weakened some of the barriers to transition to peace, the shattered national institutions and continuation of popular identification based on tribal loyalties point towards continuation of the crisis and demonstrate that the outlooks for peace in the near future are all but gloomy.