Toppling Qaddafi
Libya and the Limits of Liberal Intervention

A highly readable look at the role of the US and NATO in Libya's war of liberation, and its lessons for future military interventions.

Christopher S. Chivvis (Author)

9781107041479, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 December 2013

264 pages, 16 b/w illus. 5 maps
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.55 kg

'The monograph's main merit is its empirical investigation. Chivvis worked at the US Department of Defense during the war in Libya and thus is in a position to provide a very detailed description of the entire military campaign, drawing not only on press releases and news outlets, but also on interviews with US and allied officers and officials. The result is a clear, masterfully written and insightful book that delivers important information, even to the informed reader.' Andrea Gilli, The International Spectator

Toppling Qaddafi is a carefully researched, highly readable look at the role of the United States and NATO in Libya's war of liberation and its lessons for future military interventions. Based on extensive interviews within the US government, this book recounts the story of how the United States and its European allies went to war against Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, why they won the war, and what the implications for NATO, Europe, and Libya will be. This was a war that few saw coming, and many worried would go badly awry, but in the end the Qaddafi regime fell and a new era in Libya's history dawned. Whether this is the kind of intervention that can be repeated, however, remains an open question - as does Libya's future and that of its neighbors.

1. Libya and the light footprint
2. Precipitous crisis
3. The pivots of war
4. Crippling Qaddafi and infighting over NATO
5. Stalemate
6. Grinding away
7. Sudden success
8. The impact of the war and its implications.

Subject Areas: International organisations & institutions [LBBU], Law [L], United Nations & UN agencies [JPSN1], International relations [JPS]