for years after the occupation started. Libya produces more electricity, natural gas and oil than it needs. Water is scarcer but the Great Manmade River project and desalinisation research projects seem to meet the current demand. Consequently, in contrast to Iraq, it can be expected that the population will still have access to essential goods and services, which will mitigate popular discontent and contribute to the security and stability of the country, and buttress the legitimacy of the transitional authority in charge of the political revamping of Libya. Finally, similarly to Iraq, the Libyan civil society is so to speak inexistent. Like Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi's fist smashed any attempts at contradicting his regime, leaving no room for civil society organisations to blossom. However, after the Ba'ath regime's fall, Iraq witnessed the birth and development of a myriad of civil society organisations, which started to counter-balance the power of the Iraqi state, and play its watchdog role. Recent developments in Iraq have shown that sectarianism has taken its toll on the civil society but it did not manage to suppress its voice. With a young, essentially urban, and highly literate population, Libya has the potential to witness similar developments and benefit fairly quickly of the presence of a very active and buoyant civil society, without doubts, with the full backing of Western democracy promotion agencies. Taken together, if the UN and the future Libyan political class, with the full support of the West, manages to work on and secure consistency of