Is NATO just now brainstorming on post-Gaddafi Libya?

Whatever one thinks of the advisability of NATO involvement in post-Gaddafi Libya, it seems unbelievable that the alliance is only now drawing up options plans. Via the Associated Press: NATO planners are drawing up options for a possible NATO role in Libya after the civil war in the North African nation ends, officials said Wednesday. ...

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

Whatever one thinks of the advisability of NATO involvement in post-Gaddafi Libya, it seems unbelievable that the alliance is only now drawing up options plans. Via the Associated Press:

Whatever one thinks of the advisability of NATO involvement in post-Gaddafi Libya, it seems unbelievable that the alliance is only now drawing up options plans. Via the Associated Press:

NATO planners are drawing up options for a possible NATO role in Libya after the civil war in the North African nation ends, officials said Wednesday.

NATO’s governing body — the North Atlantic Council — has told its military staff to brainstorm ways to assist a future U.N. mission to stabilize the country.

"The council provided the NATO military authorities with a set of political guidelines for a possible future NATO supporting role in Libya … in support of wider international efforts," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.

Planners are expected to come up with options in the next week to present to the alliance’s political leadership.

I very much hope that the real story here is that due to intra-alliance politics and procedure, NATO was not able to "formally" brainstorm until now but actually has been thinking hard about this question for months.

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

Tag: NATO

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