The Role of Tribal Dynamics in Libya's Post-2011 Armed Fragmentation

Abstract

The Libyan Crisis has been one of the most protracted and convoluted civil conflicts of the last decade. Seeking to add complexity to the conflict’s mainstream narratives of geopolitical determinism, this project analyzes the role of one of the most relevant social structures of the country: tribes. In order to do so, this research studies a variety of subjects, from tribal participation in the foundation of early and modern forms of the Libyan state, Muhammar Gaddafi’s manipulation of tribal dynamics and to the role of tribalism in Libya’s 1st and 2nd Civil Wars and its subsequent peacebuilding efforts. Throughout this project, the role of tribalism in the Libyan Crisis is decisively stated as an instrumental contributive factor, albeit not in an exclusive fashion, to the country ongoing armed fragmentation, producing new conceptual approaches to the history, motives, outcomes and prospects of such contribution.