Once again Malta finds itself in the frontline due to events to the south of our island. In my parents’ lifetime it was the importance of our small, vulnerable, yet strategically important island, in keeping the Mediterranean sea and air lanes open for British supply of the forces engaged in the North African campaign during World War II. Today it is the unfolding horror of a power struggle within Libya that has the potential to destabilise the world order.

The reality is that unless Muammar Gaddafi relinquishes power or is deposed soon we will almost certainly be asked to host a significant number of air and sea assets to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. Such a no-fly zone would be established to ensure that Colonel Gaddafi could not move troops or utilise air power freely within Libya. It would be deemed essential by the EU and US that the Libyan oilfields are protected and to ensure that the population at large is not attacked from the air or ground.

In short, Libya would be subjected to a lock-down – no significant force or aircraft would be able to move outside of the urban areas without it being liable to precision airborne or special forces attack by the policing force. Libya is ideally suited to this sort of operation in that to move around the country one has to traverse large areas of open uninhabited tracts of land. The monitoring of movement is, therefore, made so much easier.

The assets required for such an operation are formidable given that such a no-fly zone would be a 24/7 operation with airborne surveillance aircraft to monitor the airspace and movement on the ground, electronic countermeasures aircraft to neutralise air defence radars and missile systems, and attack aircraft to enforce the no-fly zone. Furthermore, the force would require airfields, ports and logistical support as close as possible to the area of operations. Increased transit distance has an exponential effect upon the number of assets required by such a force.

Given its geographical position, Malta would certainly figure prominently in the provision of these airfield and port facilities. We are part of the EU and as such we will be expected to play our part in such an operation. We cannot hide or shirk our responsibilities and we would be expected to host whatever forces may be required.

We cannot shelter beneath the EU umbrella politically and economically and still cling to the notion of neutrality in the wider context of the previous East-West divide.

We stand at the threshold of a new order in the whole of North Africa.

Whether this new order is radical, democratic or just a re-hash of what predominated until recently, only time will tell. What is perfectly clear is that the political, and most probably the economic, landscape to the South along the whole of the North African coast has changed.

Life will not be the same from hereon whether we like it or not. We must rise to the challenge in a mature and measured manner.