The responsibility to rebuild and Jus Post Bellum : mapping the normative discourse on stabilization in Libya from 2011 to 2020

Abstract

Over the past two decades, stabilization has emerged as a dominant mode of international engagement in conflict-affected areas and fragile settings. The universal quest for a sustainable compact of peace in the aftermath of military interventions has reinvigorated debates in policy and academic circles around the uptake of concepts such as the responsibility to rebuild and jus post bellum; and how they inform the broader debate around moral imperatives to rebuild post-intervention states. This thesis seeks to analyse the convergences and divergences between the responsibility to rebuild and jus post bellum and the extent to which they inform the broader conceptual and normative debates around stabilization and peacebuilding. The case study of Libya, in the aftermath of the 2011 NATO-led intervention, presents an insightful entry point into the ethically charged debate on responsibilities, obligations and duty to rebuild post-intervention societies while shedding light on the contending narratives in the post-conflict normative discourse.