The Libya Shield Force grouping of militias appears to be the most widely-deployed across Libya.

BBC: Disarming Libya's militias

Such a move would underline both a growing anxiety over Iranian intentions and the ineffectiveness of the Gulf Co-opertaion Council's own Peninsula Shield Force which was established in 1984.

BBC: Analysis: Selling arms to the Gulf

Regulators want to safeguard the strength and soundness of the banks they supervise, so they tend to shield them from the full force of domestic or external competition.

ECONOMIST: Open wider | The

The European commanded UNIFIL force in Lebanon has instead acted as a shield defending Hizbullah from Israel.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Iran's Gaza diversion

Our religion should not be a shield behind which we hide from the world but a driving force that inspires us to innovate and contribute to our surroundings.

BBC: Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country

Just as Hizbullah has used UNIFIL forces in south Lebanon as a shield from the IDF behind which it has rearmed and reasserted control over the border zone, so too a NATO force would facilitate an empowerment of Hamas and Fatah, which would unify, arm and organize free from the threat of IDF counterterror operations.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Netanyahu's grand coalition