Libya: The Political Economy of Isolation

Only a few days after the Egyptian revolution had achieved its climax with the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Libyans started a battle to topple their own dictator. However, contrary to the cases of Egypt and Tunisia, in Libya the battle was destined to last much longer as Ghadhafi refused to release power. Eventually the revolutionaries managed to achieve their aims only thanks to the intervention of NATO, which helped them take control of Tripoli six months after the beginning of the struggle, in late August 2011 (Boyle 2013).