In an article from the New Statesman, Bernard-Henri Levy points out that the collapse of the Libyan state is a result of very little action in the realm of state building. Levy suggests that foreign powers should have provided assistance in training a police force, constructing a program of disarmament and reintegration of the former combatants and a Libyan national school of public administration. Although the situation is deteriorating quickly, Levy does point out that the fact that it is not too late to act, and that Libya is by no means a country filled with extremists:
The reality is that an international force mandated by the United Nations would be welcomed with open arms and would have little trouble taming the death squads that presently sow so much terror while being so wholly unrepresentative of today’s Libya.The country has held two free elections since the fall of Gaddafi. Both elections were clear-cut defeats for the Islamists. The first brought to power for sixteen months the most democratic and pro-western leader that the Arab world has produced in a long while: Ali Zeidan. The second, held 25 June, saw only 30 Islamists elected to the 188-seat legislature that has just convened in Tobruk despite calls for a boycott by the jihadist minority.