Taking the Lead

The foreign intervention in Libya, which began last week, has drawn much comment.  Questions regarding legitimacy, cost (financial and human) and impact, amongst others, have arisen.  More recently, observers have been focusing on who is actually in charge of the air strikes and wider operations.  There has been involvement from Nation States including France, the US and Spain, with more recent contributions coming from Arab States such as Kuwait and Qatar.  Institutions have also entered into the conflict, most notably NATO and the UN.

Significantly, disputes have surfaced this week between the belligerents as to who is exactly leading the operation.  Obama has publicly stated his desire to see the US relinquish control over the combat in the coming days, but who is willing to take the lead?  Gaddafi has long sought to raise the profile of the African Union (AU) to the status of being a heavyweight institution; an entity to rival the EU, but the AU has done little so far during the Libyan crisis.  Turkey, which purports to be the big regional player in the Middle East and seeks to influence Muslim states with its soft power has had a minor impact, compounded, and to some extent, hampered, by its insistence on a non-military stance when the unrest began in Libya.  Other larger military powers like China and Russia have been almost completely absent.

So who, or what, is to take up the reins?  Perhaps this is the ideal moment for the EU to finally agree, corroborate and cooperate as one, in a genuine foreign policy action.  All of the ‘ingredients’ are present: Libya is on the EU’s periphery; there is potentially a large humanitarian crisis brewing; no one wants to see a repeat of the inaction, which was seen in Bosnia in the 1990s etc.  Taking control of military (and possibly post-military) operations would really announce to other great Powers i.e. China, the US, and to a lesser extent, Russia, that the EU is willing and capable of carrying out its own foreign policy (military) actions in a coherent and united fashion.  After the economic crisis, and with certain EU economies lagging behind developing nations, the Libyan intervention should be seen by the EU as an opportunity to work together to achieve something tangible and lasting.  Needless to say, predicting the outcome of warfare, especially when it is civil in nature, is a difficult task, and many questions remain.  But, this is a great possibility for the EU, albeit extremely challenging, for it to announce itself as a united collective rather than its usual personification as a disorganised, quarrelling entity.