I recommend reading "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein. She describes how the IMF had become a tool for the American government to implement economic policy on other nations mostly for the benefit of global corporate interests. In this way, the USA (and other western nations to a lesser extent) are "economic" conquerers, which is easier than being military conquerors. I wasn't a believer that there was some kind of sinister master plan until I read this book.

https://medium.com/politically-speaking/book-review-the-shock-doctrine-524e171b782b

Libya and Iraq were motivated, to some degree, to gain a little more control of the world oil supply. Bringing democracy to these countries was a distant second reason.