MEDIMUN XVI Annual Session 2021 - Security Council

MEDIMUN XVI Annual Session 2021

        Security Council
        Research Report

Mediterranean Model United Nations XVI 2021

Contents
Contents                                                                              2

Topic 1: The situation in Libya                                                       3
Topic 2: The question of advancing responsible state behaviour in cyberspace in the
context of free independent elections                                                 9

Mediterranean Model United Nations XVI 2021

Topic 1: The situation in Libya

Introduction
Dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi ruled oil-rich Libya for nearly 40 years (1961-2011),
but when the end came, it came fast - and the nation hasn’t been the same since.

Since the Arab spring movement and Nato bombing campaign that toppled Gaddafi
in 2011, Libya has been in chaos.
After Gaddafi fell, attempts to transition into democracy disintegrated into a new
civil war between rival governments in 2014.
Ever since, Libya’s civil war has only escalated further into more of an international
war. Key nations in the region, such as Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE and more
distant nations such as France, Italy, Russia and Turkey all have a large stake in
solving this complex issue.

As of now the UN-recognised Tripoli administration, the Government of National
Accord (GNA) and the Tobruk administration, lead the Libyan National Army (LNA),
remain in conflict as to who should be in charge of running Libya.

General Overview
Libya has a 1,770 km long coastline right at the doorstep of
Europe. Hence, it has become a key stepping stone for
refugees across Africa looking to escape the terrors of their
home nations.
This influx of desperate people, combined with the chaos of
having two governments that believe they should be in

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control, has made Libya a breeding ground for human smuggling and extremist
groups.
Moreover, Libya is home to Africa’s biggest oil reserves, which puts it on the radar
of other countries.
And perhaps most importantly, there are 6 million Libyan people, simply wishing to
have a safe and secure future.
Since the uprising, more than 200,000 people have been displaced and 1.3 million
are in need of humanitarian aid.
Casualty numbers are hard to verify, but estimates range from 2,500 to 25,000
during the 2011 uprising alone.

Next, let’s look at the roots of this situation:
We can trace back this chaos to 2011, when dictator Gaddafi fell to the popular
protests known as the Arab Spring swept through the region.
However, once Gaddafi was gone, the rebel groups that had united to bring him
down, turned against each other.
In 2014, a disputed parliamentary election plunged Libya into the chaos we see
today. As key institutions like the law enforcement collapsed, two rival
administrations emerged - the GNA and the LNA.
The western, Tripoli administration, known as the Government of National Accord
(GNA), is led by UN-backed prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj.
The eastern, Tobruk administration, known as the Libyan National Army (LNA), is led
by renegade general Khalifa Haftar.

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These two administrations have two different ‘models’ of power. The GNA is
primarily based on Political Islam, while the LNA is primarily based on militarist
nationalism.
Thirdly, foreign nations play an ever increasing role in the nation due to their own
strategic and economic interests.
The LNA is supported by Russia, Egypt, UAE and Saudi Arabia (and to lesser extents
by France) while the GNA is supported by Qatar, Turkey (and to lesser extents by
Italy).
The primary reason for those countries to support the LNA is that in their view Libya
requires an authoritative figure that can bring stability to the region and fight the
spread of Islamic groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
On the other hand, the primary reasons for said countries to support the GNA is due
to the shared ideological framework of Political Islam and support for the Muslim
Brotherhood.
These foreign nations have flooded Libya with weapons and drones, ignoring a UN
arms embargo.

For the LNA, both Russia and Sudan have sent
mercenaries and men to fight for Haftar. On
the other side, Syrian and Turkish recruits and
soldiers were sent to defend the GNA.
Finally, here’s how the current situation in
Libya is:
The rivalry escalated quickly in 2019 when
Haftar tried, but failed to conquer Tripoli.
Since then, the country has been in an impasse
of fighting.
Since Haftar’s LNA still controls most of the
nation’s oil fields, the country’s economy, and
in turn the livelihood of its people are very
much in his hands.
As of November 9th 2020, the region has seen
a month or so of relative calm following
second peace talks in Berlin.

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Major Parties Involved
Government of National Accord
The GNA was established with the United Nations help in 2015, in
an effort to unify rival administrations that came out of the
country’s disputed 2014 elections.
It is currently led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and is primarily
based on Political Islam.

While the GNA is based in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, it only controls
part of the west and due to lack of resources, has little power on
ground.

Its armed forces comprise the remains of Libya’s military;however, in addition to
local militias, the GNA has around 30,000 fighters.

Turkey, Italy, and Qatar provide the GNA with significant military aid.

Libya National Army
The LNA is a force of 25,000 fighters, led by renegade
General Khalifa Haftar, and is an administration
primarily based on militarist nationalism.
Haftar was a former general who helped Qaddafi
seize power; however, he later went on to assist the
CIA after breaking with Qaddafi.
The LNA today controls large areas of Libya’s east and
south. Haftar attempted to claim rule over eastern parts of the country in April 2020,
however this has not yet materialized, and his campaign to take Tripoli has collapsed
due to opposition from GNA forces.

The LNA is primarily supported by France, Egypte, the UAE, and Russia. The LNA has
been provided with drones and mercenaries by the UAE and Russia respectively.
In January 2020, the LNA cost Libya upwards of $4 billion as it shut down state oil
production and exports.

Russia

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Russia is in support of the LNA, in an effort to land oil and construction deals in
Libya.
As many as 2,000 mercenaries in Libya were sent by the Russia-based Wagner Group
to fight along the LNA.
Russia denied reports that it condones Russians operating in Libya;however, in May
2020, it reportedly provided over a dozen fighter jets.

Turkey
Turkey’s involvement in Libya in support of the GNA, is due to a desire for a larger
presence in the region.
In particular, Turkey seeks to increase its control of energy reserves in the Eastern
Mediterranean, and hopes to regain the construction contracts it lost after Qaddafi
fell in 2011.
In January, Turkey sent more than one hundred officers and two thousand Syrian
militants—enticed by promises of Turkish citizenship and higher wages—to fight on
behalf of the GNA after several months of providing weapons such as drones (a
violation of the UN embargo on weapons).

Moreover, Turkey shares the Political Islam ideology and is in favour of Islamist
groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

Militant Groups
The lack of strength in Libya’s state institutions has allowed local armed groups to
rise. In some areas, they provide much needed law enforcement and security that
the state cannot.
Small militia also play instrumental roles in the war by providing either of the
governments with additional manpower.
However, larger Islamist militant groups such as al-Qaeda, and the self-proclaimed
Islamic State also operate within the country. Much of the damage done to civilians
is done by these rogue groups.

Previous Attempts to Resolve the Issue
Libya Peace Summit in Berlin

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In January 2020, the German government invited the two rivals, Sarraj and Haftar,
the heads of state of all the foreign countries directly and indirectly involved, as well
as representatives from the EU, the AU and the Arab League.
Since the meeting was overseen by the United Nations, UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres was also present.

These high-profile peace talks in Berlin did not result in any lasting truce and Libya
went back to violence.
A follow up meeting on October 5th 2020,however, yielded much better results.
At the end of the conference, Germany's foreign minister was able to voice
"cautious optimism" over efforts in Libya.
This meeting did yield a key ceasefire deal and as of today (November 9th 2020) has
brought a month of relative calm.
Now, the international community looks as Libya aims to hold national elections
within 9 months.

Possible Solutions
One possible solution is:

   ● A complete ceasefire,
   ● Negotiations to ensure a transition to a post-Gaddafi, legitimate and
     representative government.
   ● Military intervention should be viewed as a last resort, with the civilians’
     safety at the highest priority
   ● On the other hand, given that the nation has been practically split into East
     and West since 2014, a split Libya is a possible reality.

Sources
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/18/war-in-libya-how-did-it-start-
what-happens-next
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/whos-who-libyas-war
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/9/un-libya-envoy-voices-optimism-
ahead-of-talks-in-tunisia
https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/09/14/this-war-is-out-of-our-hands-
internationalization-of-libya-s-post-2011-conflicts-from-proxies-to-boots-on-ground-
pub-82695
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53863627

https://www.dw.com/en/libyas-civil-war-whats-behind-the-fight/av-54873237

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Topic 2: The question of advancing responsible state
behaviour in cyberspace in the context of free independent
elections
Introduction
In recent years, light has been shed on the issue of data manipulation and its use to
alter public opinion, which can seriously distort important democratic procedures
like elections and referendums. The overwhelming advancements in cyberspace are
said to have had an impact on the outcome of many elections as public opinion can
be easily shaped through what we see and read on social media. The cyberspace is a
vast world that adapts to the needs of the consumer; Research 1 has shown that
algorithms created by major companies such as Cambridge Analytica, encourage
addiction to their platforms, simultaneously harvesting personal data to target users
with ads and posts that greatly sway public opinion and have so far gone largely
unregulated.

Definition of Key Terms
Responsible state behaviour: government actions that are characterised by
trustworthiness and can be relied upon by its citizens to adhere to a moral high
ground.
Free and fair elections: elections that are a true reflection of the free expression of
the will of the people.
Data harvesting: a process where a small script, also known as a malicious bot, is
used to automatically extract large amounts of data from websites and use it for
other purposes.
Small script: a program for a specific purpose that automates the execution of tasks.
State-sponsored hacktivism: the act of misusing a computer system or network for a
socially or politically motivated reason, which is sponsored by the government.

General Overview
The right to internet privacy has been a concern since the exponential growth of
cyberspace in the 1990s, but serious angst regarding data harvesting has been ever-
more prominent after the conspicuousness of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica
scandal in March 2018. The scandal became known world-wide with the emergence
of a whistle-blower, an ex-Cambridge Analytica employee, Christopher Wylie.

1
  Netflix’s The Social Dilemma highlights the problem with social media, but what’s the
solution?. (2020). Retrieved 5 November 2020, from https://theconversation.com/netflixs-the-
social-dilemma-highlights-the-problem-with-social-media-but-whats-the-solution-147351

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Cambridge Analytica worked on campaigns in several
key states for a Republican political action committee.
Its key objective, according to a memo the Observer
has seen, was “voter disengagement” and “to persuade
Democrat voters to stay at home”: a profoundly
disquieting tactic. It has previously been claimed that
suppression tactics were used in the campaign, but this
document provides the first actual evidence. The
company first worked on Ted Cruz’s campaign, and
later in Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.
Targeted posts and ads portrayed political rival, Hillary
Clinton, as a criminal. The phrase ‘Crooked Hillary’ with
the icon of handcuffs was coined by Cambridge
Analytica. In total, more than 87 million users’ data was
used by the company.

Damian Tambini, director of the media policy project at the LSE, who leads the
group, made up of leading experts in the field, said that new forms of online
campaigning had not only changed the ways that political parties target voters but,
crucially, had also altered the ability of big money interests to manipulate political
debate. “There is a real danger we are heading down the US route where whoever
spends the most money is most likely to win. That’s why we’ve always controlled
spending in this country. But these controls are no longer working.”
Christopher Wylie had also been an anonymous source for an article in 2017 in The
Observer/Guardian by Cadwalladr, headlined ‘The Great British Brexit Robbery’ 2,

2
  Cadwalladr, C. (2017). The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked. Retrieved
8 November 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-
brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy

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which dealt with another scandalous operation, which unfolded a series of
investigations regarding the legitimacy and legality of the British Brexit Campaign.
In 2019, Robert S. Mueller, the former Special Counsel for the United States
Department of Justice released the ‘Report on The Investigation into Russian
Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election’, also known as the Mueller report.
This report uncovered that Russia engaged in extensive attacks on the U.S. election
system in 2016:
Russian interference in the 2016 election was “sweeping and systemic”
Major attack avenues included a social media “information warfare” campaign that
“favored” candidate Trump and the hacking of Clinton campaign-related databases
and release of stolen materials through Russian-created entities and Wikileaks.
Russia also targeted databases in many states related to administering elections
gaining access to information for millions of registered voters.
Rights to privacy are currently being considered as Human Rights by many advocates
that urge for the creation of data protection legislations. David Caroll is an example
of such an advocate; he brought his case before the High Court in London in an
attempt to recover personal information from Cambridge Analytica. While CA did
plead guilty, Caroll’s data was not returned to him.
According to the US Director of National Intelligence, over 30 states currently
possess cyber- attack capabilities, and such attacks now figure prominently in the
intelligence community’s ranking of global threats faced by the United States. 95% of
breached records came from only three industries in 2016, with the major one being
Governments3. Cyberspace has witnessed a ‘militarisation’ as a growing number of
states engage in a variety of cyber operations directed against foreign entities. The
rate of this militarisation has outstripped the diplomatic efforts undertaken to
provide this unique environment with some ‘rules of the road’.
Two years after the Brexit vote in 2016, it was revealed that AggregateIQ had been
paid £3.5 million by four pro-Brexit campaigning groups -Vote Leave, Be Leave,
Veterans for Britain, and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party - to design
software aimed at aggregating personal data and influencing voters through
messaging on social media. Under UK law, coordination between groups during an
election is prohibited. In May 2018, a Facebook executive testified before the House
of Commons Select Committee for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport that Vote Leave
and BeLeave were targeting exactly the same audiences on Facebook via AIQ.

3
  Vigliarolo, B. (2017). Forrester: What can we learn from a disastrous year of hacks and breaches?.
Retrieved 8 November 2020, from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/forrester-what-can-we-
learn- from-a-disastrous-year-of-hacks-and-breaches/

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Major Parties Involved
Cambridge Analytica
Formerly known as SLC, Cambridge Analytica (CA) was a
British political consulting firm which was involved in
influencing hundreds of elections globally and that came to
prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica
data scandal. The organization is said to have assisted in more
than 200 elections around the world, with the most notable
examples being in Australia, India, Kenya, Malta,
Mexico, UK and the US. In a 2016 speech, Alexander
Nix, the CEO of Cambridge Analytica, unfurled the
company’s methodology: “We’ve rolled out a long-form
quantitative instrument to probe the underlying traits
that inform personality,” he proclaimed. “If you know the personality of the people
you’re targeting, you can nuance your messaging to resonate more effectively with
those key groups.”

AggregateIQ
AggregateIQ (AIQ) is a Canadian political consultancy and technology company, that
‘integrates, obtains, and normalizes data from disparate sources.’ AIQ has attracted
controversy over its involvement in the VoteLeave and BeLeave campaigns in 2016
as well as the CA scandal that broke out in 2018. AIQ created Ripon, a customized
campaign software platform that became the prototype used by pro-Brexit
campaign groups, including VoteLeave and BeLeave.

Leave.EU Campaign
Leave.EU played a decisive role in the British public’s historic vote to leave the EU in
2016. Almost four years later, the campaign remains active as the British
government negotiates its full exit from the European bloc.

Palantir Technologies
Palantir Technologies is a public American software company that specializes in big
data analytics. The company went public in September 2020, 16 years after its
inauguration. Palantir is said to be ‘founded on the conviction that it’s essential to
preserve fundamental principles of privacy and civil liberties while using data’.
However, some4 4 argue that they are relentlessly building the most intrusive,

4
 Greenberg, A. (2020). How A ‘Deviant’; Philosopher Built Palantir, A CIA-Funded Data-
Mining Juggernaut. Retrieved 8 November 2020, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/agent-of-intelligence-how-a-deviant-
philosopher-built-palantir-a-cia-funded-data-mining-juggernaut/?sh=7404b5b37785

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nefarious surveillance and analysis tools they possibly can, by being on the bleeding
edge of what is societally permissible. Palantir’s stocks are growing rapidly in the
past couple of days, starting from the 4th of November 2020, possibly as a response
to the US 2020 elections, in conjunction with the need to analyse large data sets.
Palantir is said to provide a software platform that enables people to take data is
relevant to them and understand it more easily and thoroughly than ever before,
using concepts that they already understand. They are applying this vision, at first, to
solving problems in the finance sector and the government intelligence community.

USA
There are endless connections between the US
and CA; Steve Bannon, the former vice-president
of CA, was a key adviser to Donald Trump. The
connections do not end here; Nigel Farage, the
leader of Brexit, has close friendly relations with
Donald Trump, as they were seen partying
together. The Trump campaign was proven to have
worked with CA, as uncovered by the Facebook
scandal. Prior to that, the Ted Cruz campaign was
also assisted by CA to achieve their desired
election outcome.
UK
Many donors to the UK Conservative Party reportedly have connections to the
parent company of Cambridge Analytica. Specifically, Nigel Farage, the Brexit leader
campaign.

Russia
In early July, Shane Harris of the Wall Street Journal released a series of reports that
offered some of the most compelling evidence, yet that Trump’s campaign colluded
with Russian hackers.
All of the major stakeholders that take part in immoral data mining are continually
said to be inevitably entwined by various whistle-blowers, however all of them deny
any kind of connection.
Wiki leaks
WikiLeaks is a multinational media organization founded by its publisher Julian
Assange in 2006. WikiLeaks specializes in the analysis and publication of large
datasets of censored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying
and corruption. It has so far published more than 10 million documents and
associated analyses. The organisation has contractual relationships and secure
communications paths to more than 100 major media organizations from around the
world.

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Key figures:
Robert Mercer, owner of former CA
Alexander Nix, CEO of former CA
Brittany Kaiser, ex CA employee, whistleblower
Christopher Wylie, ex CA employee, whistleblower
Julian Wheatland, British businessman and Conservative Party politician known for
his involvement with the Facebook–CA data scandal.

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Previous Attempts to Resolve the Issue
Resolution 68/167
The dominance of the cyberspace over our lives has more prominently been felt in
the past couple of years. Some commissions and organisations have been urgently
set up to deal with and ameliorate the issue of irresponsibility in elections.

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Examples include:
The UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)
A voluntarily funded, autonomous institute within the United Nations. One of the
few policy institutes worldwide focusing on disarmament, UNIDIR generates
knowledge and promotes dialogue and action on disarmament and security. Based in
Geneva, UNIDIR assists the international community to develop the practical,
innovative ideas needed to find solutions to critical security problems.
The UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE)
In 2004, the UN General Assembly has established the Group of Governmental
Experts (GGE) to examine the impact of developments in ICT on national security and
military affairs. The primary mechanism for discussing possible norms of responsible
state behaviour has been a series of UN Groups of Governmental Experts (GGE),
which have produced three consensus reports over the last decade. The 2015 report
recommended a series of principles and confidence-building measures to prevent
conflict, but prospects for its implementation have receded as differences amongst
states persist over how security concepts should be applied to cyberspace.
Renewed efforts to promote responsible state behaviour will require greater
engagement on the part of the private sector and civil society, both of which have a
huge stake in sustaining cyber peace.
The Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG)
The OEWG was established by the UN General Assembly in December 2018
(A/RES/73/27). It is tasked to continue to develop the rules, norms, and principles
of responsible behaviour of states, discuss ways for their implementation, and to
study the possibility of establishing regular institutional dialogue with broad
participation under the auspices of the UN.

Possible Solutions
   ● It is evident that data harvesting should be regulated, if not banned when
     involuntary.
   ● An important facet in protecting users all around the world is to establish an
     independent, UN-led monitoring and regulating committee that can maintain
     checks and balances on organisations such as CA.
   ● Another essential course of action is establishing Data Privacy Laws that will
     be able to be put into practice if another scandal emerges. Legislations will
     not only act as protective measures, but preventative ones as well. Their
     existence can help set precedents.
   ● Protecting Whistle-blowers can also assist in the persecution of malicious
     data use.
   ● Additionally, thwarting phishing data attempts comes down to user
     behaviour and understanding the best way to protect themselves against
     some of the most common hacking methods; education on the prevalence of

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     data harvesting can prevent users from unnecessarily dispensing personal
     data on cyberspace.
   ● Civil society engagement is also crucial in advancing fair elections; where
     governments act irresponsibly, citizens must be trained to recognise the
     objectivity of the information they are overwhelmed with.

Appendix/Appendices
   ● The Cambridge Analytica Scandal explained with diagrams:
     https://www.vox.com/policy-andpolitics/2018/3/23/17151916/facebook-
     cambridge-analytica-trump-diagram
   ● The Social Dilemma (2020), Documentary [Available on Netflix]
   ● The Great Hack (2019), Documentary [Available on Netflix]

Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-
fallout.html
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/20/the-great-hack-cambridge-
analytica-scandal-facebook-netflix
https://www.wired.com/story/congress-democrats-trump-inquiry-cambridge-
analytica/
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/16/15657512/cambridge-
analytica-facebook-alexander-nix-christopher-wylie
https://wikileaks.org/What-is-WikiLeaks.html
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-29053-5_18
https://dig.watch/processes/un-gge
https://theconversation.com/netflixs-the-social-dilemma-highlights-the-problem-
with-social-media-but-whats-the-solution-147351
https://unidir.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica
https://leave.eu/about/
https://www.wired.com/story/one-mans-obsessive-fight-to-reclaim-his-cambridge-
analytica-data/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/01/dark-money-threat-to-uk-
elections-integrity
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/16/15657512/cambridge-
analytica-facebook-alexander-nix-christopher-wylie
The ethics of Cybersecurity by Markus Christen, Bert Gordijn and Michele Loi (2020)

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