Norway ready to dial back Libya air operations

Norway appears to think that it’s pulling much more than its weight in NATO’s Libya operation: The left-wing newspaper Klassekampen quoted what it called highly placed government sources as saying all three coalition parties are tired of seeing Norway fly more missions than they think are warranted for a country of its size. "Enthusiasm for ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Norway appears to think that it's pulling much more than its weight in NATO's Libya operation:

Norway appears to think that it’s pulling much more than its weight in NATO’s Libya operation:

The left-wing newspaper Klassekampen quoted what it called highly placed government sources as saying all three coalition parties are tired of seeing Norway fly more missions than they think are warranted for a country of its size.

"Enthusiasm for the bombing is falling in all three parties, and the government wants to ratchet down the Norwegian effort and bring (some) aircraft home, if not all of them," the newspaper said.

According to the daily Aftenposten, Norwegian jets have flown a total of 315 sorties and dropped 289 bombs. Together with fellow Scandinavian NATO-member Denmark, it has the highest ratio of bombs dropped in relation to its population.

Norway has less than 5 million citizens.

Norway’s decision suggests one possible outcome for the alliance operation: that absent signficant signs of progress on the ground, enthusiasm and interest among alliance members will wane until the operation slowly and ignominiously expires. I’m betting against this scenario. Too many powerful Western politicians are too invested in the operation for it to be allowed to fail. The alternative is indefinite air operations with a relatively few countries contributing.  It’s worth recalling that the UK and the United States maintained no-fly zones over areas of Iraq for almost a decade. 

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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