Chair: Professor Mats Berdal, Director, Conflict, Security and Development Research Group (CSDRG) & Programme Director, MA in Conflict, Security and Development

Speaker: Ian Martin, Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Conflict, Security and Development Research Group (CDSRG)

Discussants:

• Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo and a Board Member of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)
• Matthew Preston, Deputy Head of Research Analysts in the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Ian Martin served as Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Libya and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) in 2011-12. In this lecture he reassesses the international intervention in Libya in 2011. Among the key questions he explores are: Was the intervention justified? Did the intervening countries abuse the mandate to protect civilians by seeking regime change? Could there have been a meditated political transition? Was there a failure of realistic post-conflict planning?

Bios:

Ian Martin was the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Libya and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) 2011-12. His previous senior UN appointments include Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Nepal; Special Envoy for Timor-Leste; Representative in Nepal of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea; Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the East Timor Popular Consultation; Chief of the UN Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda; and Director for Human Rights of the International Civilian Mission in Haiti. He also served as a member of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO) appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which reported in June 2015. Ian Martin is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the CSDRG.

 

Professor Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo and a Board Member of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). She was a Member of the official enquiry set up by the Norwegian Government in 2017 into the Norwegian contributions to operations in Libya in 2011.

 

Dr Matthew Preston is Deputy Head of Research Analysts in the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He is also an analyst in the Multilateral Research Group, which he has been a part of since 2003, and which he headed from 2009-16. He specialises in the United Nations, the OSCE, conflict and human rights. He has negotiated extensively for the UK in the UN and the OSCE, in New York, Geneva, Vienna and elsewhere. During the Libya intervention in 2011, he was based in London, advising particularly on the UN-related dimensions of the situation, including in the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Human Rights Council.

 

Mats Berdal is Professor of Security and Development in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, where he is also the Programme Director for the MA in Conflict, Security and Development and Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Research Programme (CSDRG). He joined the department in 2003, having previously been Director of Studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London from 2000 to 2003.

 

This event will be held on Zoom. Please register via Zoom, all registered attendees will receive an email with access information.