The North Atlantic Treaty Organization And Libya: Reviewing Operation Unified Protection

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) military action in Libya was a first in many ways—the Alliance’s first combat operation against an Arab country; the first time the United States “led from behind”; and the first time the concept of Responsibility to Protect was applied to support Libya’s civilian population against a murderous regime. The action is also considered, militarily speaking, a success, and has inspired confidence in those who were doubtful after the Alliance’s patchy Afghanistan experience.
In this monograph, Dr. Florence Gaub draws strategic lessons from the operation and points out how we can learn from NATO’s ways and improve its future ability and capacity to act in a similar situation. Her
insights show that, while tactical lessons are learned
easily, strategic ones are sometimes less obvious to draw.
Given the Middle East and North Africa’s current instability and uncertainty, Libya might not be the last time NATO is called to protect civilians; more importantly, the Libyan experience itself might not be over. In a time of strategic ambiguity and austerity measures, reviewing past actions is ever more important. Dr. Gaub makes clear in this monograph that while the Libya operation was a military success, its political outcome is yet to be determined. Where military planning is not followed by thorough post-conflict planning, the successes of the former might be easily supplanted by more challenges