Topic of the Month

Analyse the difference between NATO’s reaction to civil unrest in Libya as compared to that of Yemen.

 Author: Amanda Wong

                 Intercultural Communication Student

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4^th 1949. The NATO headquarters is located in Brussels Belgium, and the organization constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. This Alliance consists of 28 independent member countries.

            In relation to the civil unrest in Libya, on March 27 2011, NATO announced that they would take command over military operations from the U.S. and all other ongoing military operations in Libya. The Parliament of Turkey, which is NATO's only Muslim member state, has authorized the government to participate in military operations in Libya, including the no-fly zone. According to an Agence France-Presse reporter in Sirte, the reason for the no-fly zone was as a result of nine blasts that rocked the coastal town as planes were heard above. In addition, according to NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the goal of NATO’s Operation Unified Protector (OUP) is “to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack from the Qaddafi regime.” This entails: (1) enforcing a UN-mandated arms embargo; (2) enforcing a no-fly zone over Libyan territory; and (3) protecting civilians and civilian population areas from being attacked by military forces from the Qaddafi regime.  

On the other hand, due to civil unrest in Yemen, NATO is very silent on any intention to intervene, in order to help curb or eliminate the violence in Yemen. NATO has not even made an attempt to discuss the matter as they did for Libya. Even though it was expected that NATO would have been involved in all the countries experiencing civil unrest in the Middle East.

            The reason for NATO’s non-involvement in Yemen, is due to the fact that they do not have anything to benefit from Yemen. Oil reserves in Libya are the largest in Africa and the ninth largest in the world with 41.5 billion barrels (as of 2007 oil production was 1.8 million barrels per day as of 2006). As a result, with respect to Libya which has oil, the government and NATO will be willing to do anything to protect this natural resource. They will also be interested in getting things “back to normal” as soon as possible so that business may resume quickly to prevent the loss of money for the country.