An unmistakable sense of despair and gloom accompanies most news reports and literature on the state of affairs in Libya after 2011. The Arab Spring was meant to usher in a period of unprecedented change after decades of notoriously undemocratic leadership across the Middle East and North Africa. Yet, seven years later, there has been very little positive development in terms of transparency, accountability, and inclusivity in the Arab world. No Arab Spring country, however, has fared worse than Libya, whose revolt, ironically, was more of a NATO-supported war than a genuine home-grown revolution with protracted battles which have essentially torn the oil-rich North African nation to shreds.
The Libyan chaos started in early 2011 and followed the revolts in both Tunisia and Egypt. The violent revolt in Libya, however, was and still is different. It began with violence, as a civil war between those who were pro-Muammar Qaddafi and those who opposed him. The denial of this fact had two consequences.
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