What the Libya crisis means long-term

The multiple crises in North Africa, from the revolution in Tunisia, through the protests in Egypt and to the conflict in Libya, has reinvigorated British foreign policy. In the last couple of years classic international issues have been pushed to the side by a need to focus on economic statecraft. Foreign ministers became less important as finance ministers gained prominence. This will now change, as leaders shift their focus onto the Libya crisis. The UN is again in focus, not the G20.

The second change may be on East/West dynamics. Before the crisis, the air was thick with talk of a multipolar world and how power was flowing roughly from the West to the emerging powers of the East; and how international politics would be shaped by the preferences of China, Russia, India and Brazil. After the crisis, things look a little different. Though the US has played a limited role in Tunisia and Libya (but a larger, behind-the-scenes one in Egypt), everyone, from protesters to power-brokers, are still looking to see what the US administration will do.