In an article for Forbes, Ethan Chorin argues that a 'Marshall Plan' for Libya that could coordinate and amplify European assistance, to Libya -- and the broader region -- could help to solve Libya's woes. He argues that:
Libya’s problems would be solved relatively quickly if a number of things happened simultaneously; first – all foreign unsanctioned military support to parties in the Libya conflict is shut off. At one point this meant principally Qatar, which has arguably done the most to politicize and radicalize the conflict, with back-up from Turkey. The list of countries intervening in Libya's conflict now include Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which are waging a proxy war in Libya against Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood; second, individuals known to be coordinating terrorism and brigandage should be subject to credible, immediate sanction and arrest; and third, the automatic tap funding militias on all sides of the conflict needs to be turned off. The tap cannot be closed, without a safety net to catch the majority who are not implicated in militia violence. There are concerns that such a move will turbocharge the country's descent into complete lawlessness - something resembling Somalia during the worst of its conflict- but really, there's not much farther to go.That requires a level of multinational coordination that is implied by the Marshall analogy. How could this be done? One can imagine a voluntary coalition of states, managing both a Marshall-like fund, a reporting and enforcement mechanism, and regional assistance, in concert with international organizations, including the World Bank, the U.N. and African Development Bank -- and most important, Libyan civil society. The focus would be Libya and all those countries impacted by Libya's post-revolution implosion, i.e., most of North Africa and the Sahel. Membership would be limited to those countries that are willing to foreswear unilateral military or non-humanitarian logistical support to any party in the Libyan conflict, to allow monitoring of their own activity, and to sanction other states that violate these commitments. To borrow (very loosely) from the lexicon of the Syrian conflict these would be the ’Friends of Libya'. This arrangement could help ‘shame’ those states who currently see in Libya’s chaos a means to narrow political, military and economic objectives, into pursuing a larger communal gain.
Click here to read the full article.