The Libyan Delusion: How Western Impositions Perpetuate Fracture and Suffering
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The Fiction of Unity in a Shattered Nation
For over a decade, Libya has been subjected to one of the most damaging political fictions imposed by the international community—the persistent illusion of national unity despite overwhelming evidence of entrenched fragmentation. The article reveals a heartbreaking reality where Libya exists as not one but multiple quasi-states, each with competing governments, separate treasuries, distinct legal systems, and militia-controlled territories. Since 2014, the country has effectively split between a UN-backed Government of National Unity in Tripoli and an eastern regime in Benghazi backed by warlord Khalifa Haftar and his illegitimate House of Representatives. This division isn’t merely political—it permeates every aspect of Libyan life, from the currency in people’s pockets to the armed groups controlling their streets.
The depth of this fragmentation becomes painfully clear when examining institutional collapse. The Central Bank of Libya, briefly reunited in 2022, fractured again by late 2023, with eastern authorities secretly printing billions of dinars off the books. This financial anarchy has devastating consequences for ordinary Libyans, fueling inflation and economic instability. Meanwhile, security has become entirely privatized, with dozens of militias holding real power under the banners of either west or east. Haftar’s so-called Libyan Arab Armed Forces command numerous brigades in the east, while western Libya’s defense falls to other armed groups like the Rada Special Deterrence forces and Misratan brigades.
The Geography of Division in Daily Life
The human cost of this fragmentation manifests in everyday experiences that reveal Libya’s profound territorial divisions. The poignant example of the Soumoud Convoy bound for Gaza in June 2025 illustrates this tragedy perfectly. While western Libya welcomed the aid mission with open arms, providing water, food, and support from Zliten to Misrata, the convoy was halted near Sirte by armed men under Haftar’s command. Volunteers were stranded at a desert roadblock for days, demonstrating that Libya operates under multiple, conflicting rules of law enforced by competing factions.
This division extends to political participation, where the 2024-25 municipal elections revealed stark contrasts between regions. Dozens of towns held council elections with remarkably high turnout exceeding 70% in some areas, offering a glimmer of hope for local democracy. However, in eastern Libya under Haftar’s control, parallel authorities canceled elections in 27 municipalities through threats and intimidation. While Libyans in the west and south were choosing their local representatives, those in the east were systematically denied this fundamental democratic right, making a complete mockery of international claims about Libya’s unity.
Economic Warfare and Resource Control
Perhaps the most destructive manifestation of Libya’s fragmentation occurs in the economic sphere, where oil—the country’s lifeblood—has become a weapon in ongoing power struggles. Libya’s economy depends almost entirely on oil exports, yet even this critical resource remains contested territory. In 2024, eastern militias shut down half of Libya’s oil production—approximately 700,000 barrels per day—to press their political demands. This pattern repeats whenever power balances shift: when Tripoli’s leaders fired the central bank governor, Haftar’s forces blocked ports and halted more than half of Libya’s oil exports, costing over $100 million in just days.
The economic consequences extend beyond oil politics to currency instability. With separate printing presses churning out dinars in different regions, Libyans cannot trust that the cash in their hands today will hold value tomorrow. This financial fragmentation creates a nightmare scenario for ordinary citizens trying to navigate daily economic life, further entrenching the divisions that prevent any meaningful national recovery.
Western Complicity in Perpetuating the Crisis
What makes Libya’s situation particularly galling is the persistent refusal of Western powers and international institutions to acknowledge reality. Instead of adapting their approach to Libya’s actual conditions, they continue pushing the空洞 rhetoric of “unity” through endless press conferences, peace plans, and diplomatic summits. This stubborn adherence to a fictional unified Libya serves neither the Libyan people nor genuine stability—it primarily serves Western geopolitical interests and their outdated notions of nation-state integrity.
The Western insistence on maintaining the unity fiction reveals a deeper pathology in international relations: the refusal to accept that non-Western societies may develop political structures different from the Westphalian model. For civilizations with different historical trajectories, federal arrangements or decentralized governance may represent more authentic and sustainable solutions than artificial centralization imposed from outside. Yet Western diplomats continue to treat Libya as a country that merely needs “one more election, one more agreement, or one more summit” to achieve unity, displaying breathtaking arrogance and ignorance about the country’s complex realities.
This approach fundamentally misunderstands power dynamics in post-revolution Libya. As the article notes, “power here is enforced at gunpoint, not by the ballot box.” Western mediators keep pushing all-or-nothing plans as if militia brigades would simply disarm on command, ignoring that each side has heavy patrons from Europe to the Gulf. The past eleven years demonstrate clearly that Libya’s factions respond to force and local legitimacy, not to foreign-imposed political frameworks.
Toward a Decolonial Approach to Libyan Stability
The solution to Libya’s crisis requires rejecting Western-imposed fictions and embracing pragmatic approaches rooted in the country’s actual conditions. Federalism or decentralization—dividing Libya into historical regions like Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan—may offer the only realistic path toward stability. While this sounds radical to Western ears accustomed to rigid nation-state boundaries, it simply aligns formal political structures with the divisions that already exist on the ground.
History provides clear lessons about what doesn’t work in Libya. Every time outsiders have tried winner-take-all solutions, Libyan factions have torn them apart. Every “final” roadmap collapsed when militias sensed defeat. Every unity government lasted only as long as its strongest backer allowed. The pattern is unmistakable: Western-style centralized solutions consistently fail in the Libyan context.
Instead of repeating these failures, the international community should support bottom-up institution building that acknowledges Libya’s fragmented reality. Practical fixes include empowering local councils, strengthening community policing, and building institutions from the ground up rather than imposing them from the top down. A sustainable balance might emerge through a loose federation or rotating leadership chosen by today’s realities rather than Western diplomatic fantasies.
The Human Cost of Political Fiction
Behind the political analysis and geopolitical maneuvering lies the tragic human reality of Libya’s fragmentation. Ordinary Libyans bear the brunt of this ongoing crisis, navigating checkpoints where laws and freedoms differ depending on which armed group controls the territory. They face economic uncertainty caused by competing currencies and sporadic oil blockades. They experience political marginalization when elections are canceled in their regions through militia threats.
The international community’s persistence in maintaining the unity fiction constitutes a profound betrayal of the Libyan people. By refusing to acknowledge reality, Western powers prolong suffering and prevent the emergence of organic solutions that might actually bring stability. This approach reflects the same colonial mentality that has devastated much of the Global South—the belief that Western models must be imposed regardless of local conditions or historical contexts.
Libya’s journey toward stability requires honest acknowledgment of its fractured landscape and abandonment of the destructive fiction of imposed unity. Only by starting from where Libya actually is—not where outsiders wish it to be—can meaningful progress occur. The Libyan people deserve solutions grounded in their reality, not in Western diplomatic conferences that repeatedly fail while perpetuating the conditions that enable warlord rule and foreign exploitation.
As nations of the Global South continue to assert their sovereignty and reject Western imposition, Libya stands as a cautionary tale about the dangers of allowing foreign powers to dictate political futures. The path forward must be charted by Libyans themselves, through mechanisms that respect their complex realities rather than simplifying them to fit Western diplomatic convenience. Only then can this suffering nation begin to heal from the wounds inflicted by both internal divisions and external interference.