From brotherhood of the revolution to the struggle for power: analysis of the Libyan Civil War in the context of the security dilemma

Abstract

The concept of the security dilemma, which was developed in the 1950s based on inter-state wars, was applied to civil wars to explain the cause of intra-state conflicts after the end of the Cold War. These applications have criticized for violating the key components emphasized by the original theory. The flaws of the literature have led to the generalization that the security dilemma cannot be applied to civil wars. This study, which opposes this generalization, claims that the process evolved into civil war in 2014 among the opposition groups that played a role in the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime can be explained by the concept of the security dilemma.