Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance 20TH ANNIVERSARY Exploring Armed Groups in Libya: Perspectives on Security Sector Reform in a Hybrid Environment DCAF – Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance The Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance - DCAF is an international foundation whose mission is to assist the international community in pursuing good governance and reform of the security sector. DCAF develops and promotes norms and standards, conducts tailored policy research, identifies good practices and recommendations to promote democratic security sector governance, and provides in-country advisory support and practical assistance programmes. Published in Switzerland in 2020 by DCAF – Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance DCAF Geneva P.O. Box 1360 CH-1211 Geneva 1 Switzerland DCAF encourages the use, translation, and dissemination of this publication. We do, however, ask that you acknowledge and cite materials and do not alter the content. Cite as: Badi, Emadeddin, Exploring Armed Groups in Libya: Perspectives on Security Sector Reform in a Hybrid Environment (Geneva: DCAF, 2020). ISBN: 92-9222-546-4 Disclaimer The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the position of the institutions referred to or represented within this publication. Author: Emadeddin Badi Internal peer review: Andrea Cellino, Archibald Gallet, and Roberta Maggi External peer review: Frederic Wehrey Layout: Pitch Black Graphic Design Copy-editing: Alessandra Allen Cover photo: Al-Ramla frontline, Tripoli, Libya, 2020. © Amru Salahuddien Exploring Armed Groups in Libya: Perspectives on Security Sector Reform in a Hybrid Environment Emadeddin Badi Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance 20TH ANNIVERSARY 2 Exploring Armed Groups in Libya: Perspectives on Security Sector Reform in a Hybrid Environment Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank the numerous Libyan officials, development practitioners, and journalists who supported his research endeavour with their generous insights. He also extends his gratitude to Roberta Maggi, Andrea Cellino, Archibald Gallet, and Nur Awad from DCAF’s Libya programme for their support and feedback on the publication. The author is particularly grateful to Frederic Wehrey for his extensive review, helpful comments, and substantive feedback on the final draft. Wolfram Lacher and Ben Fishman provided perceptive insights and observations, which contributed to refining the publication. The author also appreciated exchanges with other DCAF divisions, which helped shape the rationale of the project, as well as the editorial assistance of Alessandra Allen and design support of Pitch Black Graphic Design. Author bio Emadeddin Badi is an independent researcher that specializes in governance, post-conflict stabilization, security sector governance and peacebuilding. With over 8 years of experience, Emad regularly provides consultancy to international organizations, agencies and civil society organizations on ways to enhance the efficiency of their development programming and activities through capacity building, research and strategic planning. Emad has conducted regular field research in North Africa, primarily on avenues for reform of Libya’s security institutions, armed violence, war economies, hybrid security and cross-border crime. He currently works as an advisor for the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) for Libya and a Senior Analyst for the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow with the Middle East Program at the Atlantic Council, where he focuses primarily on the geopolitical dimensions of the Libyan conflict. Previously, he was a nonresident scholar at the Counterterrorism and Extremism Program at the Middle East Institute as well as resident Policy Leader Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Table of Contents 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................. 2 Summary..................................................................................... 67 Author bio ................................................................ 2 Disparities in social embeddedness and legitimacy .......69 Executive Summary .................................................. 4 Chapter 3: Introduction .............................................................8 Oversight of Informal Security Providers ............... 70 Patterns of hybridity ................................................................ 11 Defective SSR ..............................................................................71 State-sponsored institutional weakening ....................... 13 The inception of community-level security provision and oversight ....................................................................... 74 Chapter 1: Pro-forma institutional oversight ...................................... 76 Armed Group Structure and Cohesion ......................16 Local coordination of security provision and Reshaping and adapting to the landscape ..................... 16 “hybrid” oversight ...............................................................77 Armed actors’ proliferation after 2011 ...............................17 Tripoli: A kaleidoscopic security architecture that Hybridization by way of SSR ................................................17 betrays centralization ...................................................... 78 Social rifts bleed into politics ............................................... 19 Misrata: Collective revolutionary struggle translates Social facets of Libya’s second civil war .......................... 21 to better oversight .............................................................80 The Saiqa Special Forces: A case of progressive Fezzan: Informal oversight constrained by socio- hybridization ...........................................................................24 demographic factors ..........................................................81 The scramble for legitimacy and Tripoli’s quartet .......27 Eastern Libya’s LAAF: A warlord structure with a The Special Deterrence Force: The instrumentalization stovepiped oversight architecture ...............................83 of anti-criminality ..................................................................29 Salafi-Madkhali security providers: The LAAF asserts control over eastern Libya ................ 31 Eluding oversight ...............................................................86 The knock-on effect of northern jockeying on communal lines in Fezzan .............................................. 32 Conclusion: Battalion 116: The transmutation of a southern-based Implications for SSR & Recommendations ..............89 armed group ............................................................................35 Implications of hybridity on security provision, The offensive on Tripoli and Libya’s third ceasefires, and SSR ..........................................................89 civil war ...................................................................................37 Implications of the political economy of armed The Counterterrorism Force: Integrating socially groups on security provision, ceasefires, embedded units .....................................................................39 and SSR .................................................................................90 Summary...................................................................................... 41 Implications of social embeddedness on security provision, ceasefires, and SSR ......................................90 Chapter 2: Recommendations ......................................................................91 Community Relations, Social Embeddedness, and Patterns of Mobilization .................................. 43 Bibliography ...........................................................94 Armed groups and social embeddedness ......................44 Articles ...................................................................98 Economic practices that mirror community relations ................................................................................. 45 Armed groups, social identity theory, and optimal distinctiveness theory ............................50 Social covenants and patterns of mobilization ............ 52 Misrata’s 301 Infantry Battalion: How social legitimacy eroded over time .................................................................... 57 Faraj Egaim’s negative phenomena counter agency: A case of truncated social legitimacy ..............................61 4 Exploring Armed Groups in Libya: Perspectives on Security Sector Reform in a Hybrid Environment Executive Summary Libya’s security sector has become virtually unrecognizable from what it was a decade ago owing to the transformations brought about since the 2011 revolution. This evolution has implications for any attempt to usher in short-term and interim security arrangements – including brokering ceasefires or improving security provision and policing capabilities – as well as longer-term security sector reform (SSR) efforts. This paper explores the impact of these transformations and their varying dimensions on security provision in the Libyan landscape. It highlights the implications for attempts to reform the country’s hybrid security sector and, more broadly, how its findings could inform SSR. The paper draws on primary and secondary sources – including