Murungi, Isaac MuthauraIchani, XavierOtieno, Isaiah Oduor2024-10-032024-10-032023Murungi, I. M; Ichani, X & Oduor, O. I. (2023). North Atlantic Treaty Organization Military Intervention and Regime Change in Libya. Journal of African Interdisciplinary Studies, 7(7), 134 – 146.2523-6725https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/29039Journal ArticleThe purpose of this article is to examine the activities of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations’ (NATO) military intervention and implications on regime change in Libya. The United Nations (UN) continues to sanction humanitarian intervention against states purported to violate fundamental human rights of their citizens. Some of these interventions have transcended to sanctioned regime change that have attracted intense academic discourse. We seek to contribute to this ensuing debate using the case of the NATO’s intervention in Libya, by critique of nature of crisis warranting intervention, the rationale of humanitarian intervention in the context of Libya and to evaluate the role of foreign military intervention in precipitating regime change in Libya. Anchored on the two opposing theoretical paradigms of realism and liberalism, we argue that humanitarian intervention by the NATO was motivated by the need to promote geopolitical interests of the intervenors and that the military intervention by the NATO was anticipated and orchestrated process of extending the Western democratic values in Libya. Based on existing secondary data and interviews conducted, we conclude that while it was evident that the NATO played a major military role in forestalling the Libyan insurrection, the use of force in supplanting democratically elected government was unwarranted and failed to meet the aspirations of many in Libya. Therefore, sanctioned humanitarian intervention against states purported to violate fundamental human rights of their citizens may at times fail to serve the intended goal of self-preservation of the sovereign power of the state in question. We recommend that mandates for all humanitarian interventions be clearly spell out and that interveners’ interests must not override state sovereignty and the aspiration of the people.enArticle