Abstract
Failures in rebuilding states have generally been studied in terms of localised, sectarian strife, with little comprehension of how external interventions alter state authority. Yet, how do international interventions contribute to authority-making? I argue that authority certifications hold a twofold cure/poisoning potential producing a selective right to rule. By analysing the politics of recognition in the Libyan conflict between 2011 and 2016, this article unpacks mechanisms of legitimacy certification and decertification throughout three stages of international intervention (regime change, democratisation, and mediation). Certifications, I argue, promote a simulacrum of sovereignty by legitimising domestic forces, who then utilise certification to enhance their claim to power. By combining a focus on recognition politics with a process-oriented perspective on the mechanics of authority-making, I advance the notion of certification as a tool for political re-ordering. Theoretically, I define a selective right to rule as an externally filtered entitlement resulting from certification practices that shape complex power struggles. Empirically, I demonstrate how certification systems further divided and split Libya after 2011. While NATO’s involvement dispersed the military strength essential for regime change, UN-led democratisation and mediation efforts fueled an institutional limbo that aided rival military and political powers, bolstering divergent authority claims.
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Notes
Data for this article comes from a collection of documents, observations, field notes and interviews conducted for a project on ‘Intervention and Certification in Libya’, approved by the Research Ethics Subcommittee at Xi`an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (18-03-2019). Previous fieldwork in 2016 had been authorised by the Ethics Committee of the Department of Political Science at the University of Cape Town for a project on ‘The Responsibility to Protect in Africa and the Intervention–Sovereignty Dilemma’.
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List of interviews
Personal interview by author with Libyan political activist (no. 1), Tunis, 29 November 2016.
Personal interview by author with civil society activist (no.2), Tunis, 2 July 2019.
Personal interview by author with UNSMIL Official (no. 3), Senior Military Adviser to UN Special Envoy Martin Kobler, Tunis, 21 November 2016.
Personal interview by author with UNSMIL Official (no. 4), Tunis, 4 July 2019.
Personal interview by author with UNSMIL Official (no. 5), Tunis, 4 July 2019.
Acknowledgments
My deepest thanks go to the interviewees who provided me with their insights and all friends in Tunis who facilitated my research stay. A draft version of this article was presented at the 8th European Workshop in International Studies (EWIS) in 2021. Special thanks to Nina C. Krickel-Choi, and Evans Fanoulis for helpful comments on draft versions of this article. The research for this article was supported by the Research Development Fund (Project No. 18-02-25) at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and approved according to the University’s Ethics Research Protocol.
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Malito, D.V. A selective right to rule: interventions and authority certifications in Libya. J Int Relat Dev 27, 143–169 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-024-00325-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-024-00325-6