2024-04-252024-04-252023https://escholarship.org/uc/item/43f105d8https://repository.tcu.edu/handle/116099117/64166For decades Libya has been described by scholars and observers as a ¿stateless¿ society that lacks key institutions that define modern states, rendering the country a ¿pariah¿ and an exception. If, however, we take up the definition of the state offered by sociologist Max Weber as a ¿human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory,¿ Libya can certainly not be denied its statehood. Indeed, it is the monopoly on violence within the state in Libya that has defined its paradigmatic features and fissures over the course of the last several decades. If we understand this violence as a key defining feature of all states, we can appreciate that Libya is not so much an aberration or exception as it is a compelling case to inform understandings of states and societies around the world.ArticleCC BY-NC 4.0