> Why should that be the standard?
>
> SA
>
> Because it reveals the trajectory the country has taken since the toppling of the old regime. Has Serbia since 2000 been a perfectly compliant client state of NATO, the EU, and the United States? Certainly not. There was an assassination of a pro-Western Prime Minister in 2003, opposition to the independence of Kosovo, and continued nationalist sentiments in the country. At the same time, there can be no question that the current government is more friendly to the U.S. and Europe (formal application to the EU was made in 2009) and to Western multinationals than the Milosevic regime.
>
> This has been the pattern again and again in these regime changes. The new governments are rarely literal puppets - but then many colonial regimes would not even have qualified for that distinction. But they have been more pro-Western and neoliberal than the governments that came before. The corollary is that these regimes, regardless of their degrees of autonomy, never seem to be more progressive in terms of economic policy than the governments they replace.
>
> We have a pretty good sample size in the post Cold War period. I'm not sure why we need to pretend that no intelligent forecasts can be made about Libya. America's foreign interventions are about as predictable at this point as Hollywood action movies. And like the movies, they serve as a reliable form of popular entertainment and spectacle for the Western masses.
Most governments in the world have been trending towards neoliberalism over the last 30 years. It's not surprising that targets of U.S. regime change shifted towards neoliberalism post regime-change: most of these countries had been subject to international sanctions before they were attacked. The most imposing obstacle to neoliberalism in Iraq pre-2003 was the United States, which barred almost all economic transactions with the outside world. Milosevic may very well have been eager to follow a neoliberal strategy if only he'd been allowed to do so effectively by the U.S./EU. Let's look at Gaddaff's record of resistance to neoliberalism:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/ms/2010/102810.htm
> The Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya—2010 Article IV
> Consultation, Preliminary Conclusions of the Mission
> October 28, 2010
>
> An IMF mission visited Libya during October 17–28, 2010 to conduct
> discussions for the 2010 Article IV consultation. The mission would
> like to thank the authorities for their excellent cooperation and
> hospitality.
>
> I. Background and Recent Developments
> 1. The macroeconomic environment is strong, underpinned by large
> fiscal and external positions and continued efforts to modernize and
> diversify the economy. The mission commends the authorities on efforts
> to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy, including by
> passing a number of critical laws that build on the initiatives
> launched over the past few years to modernize the economy. These
> achievements have contributed to the favorable sovereign ratings
> assigned to the country for the second year by international rating
> agencies. The authorities are aware of the many challenges that remain
> to diversify the economy and to help create viable employment
> opportunities for the growing labor force.
>
> [...]
>
> 19. Efforts to deepen the financial market are commendable. There are
> no more fully government-owned banks, and foreign partners are
> involved in six out of the 16 operating banks. The increase of foreign
> bank participation with the granting of one license at the beginning
> of August will enhance competition, help develop a loan syndication
> market for the pipeline of foreign investments as well as bring
> further best practices to the Libyan banking sector. Furthermore, the
> number of listed companies on the Libyan stock exchange increased to
> 10 and is expected to reach 14 by end-year.
>
> [...]
>
> 21. The overarching challenge is to promote growth of the
> non-hydrocarbon sector and spur diversification of the economy. With
> the hydrocarbon representing over 90 percent of government revenue and
> 95 percent of exports, Libya is one of the least diversified
> oil-producing countries in the Middle East. The passing in 2010 of a
> number of far reaching laws will help improve the business
> environment, which is crucial to fostering private sector development
> and to attracting foreign direct investment.3 The success of these
> laws calls for sustained efforts to build a consensus on their
> validity and to boost their credibility. The mission encourages the
> authorities to (i) establish permanent bodies with adequate resources
> to monitor, assess, and oversee the implementation of the law reforms;
> (ii) set up an open consultation process with the legal and business
> communities that provide the needed knowledge on actual business
> practices and requirements; and (iii) improve inter-agency coordination.
>
> [...]
>
> 23. Progress has been made in reducing civil service employment, but a
> comprehensive civil service reform is still lacking. Out of the
> 340,000 public employees that were previously transferred to a central
> labor office for retrenchment, about a quarter have reportedly found
> other sources of income and are no longer receiving transfers from the
> state budget. The mission recommends that the retrenchment program be
> accelerated. The mission also recommends that a comprehensive civil
> service reform be implemented, in consultation with the World Bank, to
> facilitate the design of more effective wage and employment policies.