Exercises in Futility

13 March 2011, 1859 EDT

Four days ago I suggested that time is running out in Libya. With news that Brega has now fallen to pro-Gaddafi forces, it seems more likely than not that the end is nigh for the rebels. And yet France and the UK are still trying to build support for a no-fly zone, now with a major assist by the Arab League.

The problem: a no-fly zone isn’t going to save the rebellion. An air campaign against Libyan forces, combined with indirect assistance to the rebels might be enough. But that would be a heck of a lots less “sanitary” than advocates of a no-fly zone are hoping for.

This makes all of the “big picture” questions surrounding external intervention rather urgent. It also throws a continuing reality of the contemporary world order into stark relief: the US is still the only player in town when it comes to world-wide power projection. If anything, Europe’s defense cutbacks have exacerbated its dependency on US security provision.

Consider that the United States is currently engaged in two major military operations and yet it has significant forces converging on the Libyan coast and on Japan. Puts John Quiggin’s insistence that the US is now one of a number of major powers into perspective, but not necessary in a way that speaks well of current US budget priorities.

Dan Nexon

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.