d obligation:

16 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
(2008)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 729,813
females age 16-49: 741,223 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 371,287
females age 16-49: 373,265 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 30,448
female: 29,902 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

1.3% of GDP (2006 est.)

Transnational Issues
Liberia

Disputes - international:

although civil unrest continues to abate with the assistance of
18,000 UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) peacekeepers, as of January
2007, Liberian refugees still remain in Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire,
Sierra Leone, and Ghana; Liberia, in turn, shelters refugees fleeing
turmoil in Cote d'Ivoire; despite the presence of over 9,000 UN
forces (UNOCI) in Cote d'Ivoire since 2004, ethnic conflict
continues to spread into neighboring states who can no longer send
their migrant workers to Ivorian cocoa plantations; UN sanctions ban
Liberia from exporting diamonds and timber

Refugees and internally displaced persons:

refugees (country of origin): 12,600 (Cote d'Ivoire)
IDPs: 13,000 (civil war from 1990-2004; IDP resettlement began in
November 2004) (2007)

Illicit drugs:

transshipment point for Southeast and Southwest Asian heroin and
South American cocaine for the European and US markets; corruption,
criminal activity, arms-dealing, and diamond trade provide
significant potential for money laundering, but the lack of
well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a
major money-laundering center

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

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@Libya

Introduction
Libya

Background:

The Italians supplanted the Ottoman Turks in the area around Tripoli
in 1911 and did not relinquish their hold until 1943 when defeated
in World War II. Libya then passed to UN administration and achieved
independence in 1951. Following a 1969 military coup, Col. Muammar
Abu Minyar al-QADHAFI began to espouse his own political system, the
Third Universal Theory. The system is a combination of socialism and
Islam derived in part from tribal practices and is supposed to be
implemented by the Libyan people themselves in a unique form of
"direct democracy." QADHAFI has always seen himself as a
revolutionary