December 17th, 2012

Dirk Vandewalle on Libya after Qaddafi

Managing Editor Jonathan Tepperman interviews Dartmouth College professor Dirk Vandewalle on post-Qaddafi Libya, the ramifications of the attacks in Benghazi, and the lingering problem of rogue militias. Vandewalle discusses the surprising success of Libya’s nascent democracy, its progress in establishing new political institutions, and the country’s continuing challenges, all the while stressing the need for a U.S. role in North Africa.

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libya Arab spring qaddafi benghazi north africa ambassador
September 13th, 2012
What Happened in Libya A trove of essays from the last year examine NATO’s intervention in Libya, the fall of Muammar al-Qaddafi, the security mess that followed, and what lies ahead for the powder keg that the North African state has become. Read the full collection from Foreign Affairs.

What Happened in Libya

A trove of essays from the last year examine NATO’s intervention in Libya, the fall of Muammar al-Qaddafi, the security mess that followed, and what lies ahead for the powder keg that the North African state has become. Read the full collection from Foreign Affairs.

18 notes·
libya news Arab spring arab revolt islam politics
July 30th, 2012
Qaddafi’s Spawn: What the Dictator’s Demise Unleashed in the Middle East The Libyan leader’s ouster dispersed masses of guns and refugees across the region. Already, Algeria has seen attacks by AQIM militants armed with Libyan weapons, Mali has been rocked by a coup led by armed nomads returning from Libya, Niger is struggling to cope with waves of refugees from Libya and Mali, and Tunisia’s economy has been shattered by the loss of its most important trading partner.

Qaddafi’s Spawn: What the Dictator’s Demise Unleashed in the Middle East

The Libyan leader’s ouster dispersed masses of guns and refugees across the region. Already, Algeria has seen attacks by AQIM militants armed with Libyan weapons, Mali has been rocked by a coup led by armed nomads returning from Libya, Niger is struggling to cope with waves of refugees from Libya and Mali, and Tunisia’s economy has been shattered by the loss of its most important trading partner.

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qaddafi libya algeria Mali tunisia Niger arab revolution Arab spring
July 16th, 2012
Libya’s Militia Menace: The Challenge After the Elections Libya’s elections passed peacefully, but observers should have no illusions about the momentous challenges ahead, especially the task of rebuilding and formalizing the country’s security services. During its 16 months in power, the outgoing transitional government walked a fine line between trying to dismantle the country’s regional militias and making use of them as hired guns. The strategy sowed the seeds for the country’s descent into warlordism.

Libya’s Militia Menace: The Challenge After the Elections

Libya’s elections passed peacefully, but observers should have no illusions about the momentous challenges ahead, especially the task of rebuilding and formalizing the country’s security services. During its 16 months in power, the outgoing transitional government walked a fine line between trying to dismantle the country’s regional militias and making use of them as hired guns. The strategy sowed the seeds for the country’s descent into warlordism.

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libya news politics Arab spring militants
July 6th, 2011

On Humanitarianism

Is Helping Others Charity, or Duty, or Both?

Is helping others an act of charity or duty? Michael Walzer quotes medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides and the experience of the Jewish Diaspora to explain that it is both. What does this mean for the humanitarian intervention in Libya, and the future of humanitarianism in US foreign policy?

Read the article here.

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Maimonides philosophy Judaism humanitarianism humanitarian intervention Libya charity
April 6th, 2011
Although the Libya mission has been effective in averting a humanitarian debacle so far, it has been ugly in some ways. But as Ivo Daalder and Michael O’Hanlon argued about the Kosovo war a dozen years ago, an ugly operation is not the same as a failed operation.

Although the Libya mission has been effective in averting a humanitarian debacle so far, it has been ugly in some ways. But as Ivo Daalder and Michael O’Hanlon argued about the Kosovo war a dozen years ago, an ugly operation is not the same as a failed operation.

60 notes·
libya kosovo
March 29th, 2011
Flight of the Valkyries? Pundits and spin doctors were quick to jump on the supposed “gender divide” within the Obama administration leading up to the intervention in Libya. But these discussions reveal far more about gender misconceptions among foreign policy journalists than about the preferences or influence of Obama’s female foreign policy staff. What role, if any, does gender play in policy making?
Flight of the Valkyries?
Pundits and spin doctors were quick to jump on the supposed “gender divide” within the Obama administration leading up to the intervention in Libya. But these discussions reveal far more about gender misconceptions among foreign policy journalists than about the preferences or influence of Obama’s female foreign policy staff.
What role, if any, does gender play in policy making?


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Gender Obama obama administration Libya intervention
March 23rd, 2011

To the Shores of Tripoli - What Comes Next?


The international community worked at a furious pace to hammer out the terms of intervention in Libya. But the seemed to spend more time “getting the European Union, the Arab League, the G-8, and the Security Council to agree on the language than on the content” of the UN Security Council Resolution, writes Dirk Vandewalle, Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College.

Now for the crucial question: What Comes Next?

Vandewalle continues:

At this point, the international community has two options: to either protect the opposition movement in Cyrenaica, the vast eastern province in which Benghazi is located, but not force Qaddafi out of power, or make Qaddafi’s ouster an explicit goal… 

If international action simply contained Qaddafi by halting his advance, he would be left in control of Tripolitania, the northwestern province in which Tripoli is located, leaving Cyrenaica effectively independent…

But politically speaking, such a division would be disastrous.

He goes on to argue that the “international community needs a proactive agenda and a clear plan for the intervention” in Libya if the country is going to recover post-Qadaffi.

Some things for the international community to consider as they plan, according to Vandewalle:

  • Qaddafi’s departure would leave behind a political vacuum that would need filling as soon as possible.
  • It is worth noting that although there is as yet no other opposition group, the  Libyan National Council is national only in its aspirations.
  • Much of Tripolitania still genuinely supports Qaddafi and would likely be resentful of whatever took his place and refuse to join an LNC-led government.
  • To overcome antagonism between the provinces and to guide the country through the arduous process of state building and reconstruction that would follow Qaddafi’s departure, institutions would need to be truly national and representative. 
  • The international community would also have to steer the development of democracy and good governance in a country that has not known anything except tyranny for decades.

Looks like the international community might be in it for the long haul.

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Libya NATO qaddafi United Nations intervention
March 16th, 2011
What Intervention Looks Like Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Robert E. Hunter, says now is the time for the West to intervene in Libya. What can Washington and its allies accomplish before it’s too late?

What Intervention Looks Like

Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Robert E. Hunter, says now is the time for the West to intervene in Libya. What can Washington and its allies accomplish before it’s too late?
35 notes·
EU Intervention Libya NATO Obama Libya
February 28th, 2011
For four decades, Libya has been largely terra incognita, a place where the outsized personality of its quixotic leader and a byzantine bureaucracy obscured an informal network of constantly shifting power brokers. Even before the current unrest, working with these figures was uncertain at best — “like throwing darts at balloons in a dark room,” as one senior Western diplomat put it in 2009. With the Qaddafi era coming to a likely end, how will these actors now vie for supremacy?

For four decades, Libya has been largely terra incognita, a place where the outsized personality of its quixotic leader and a byzantine bureaucracy obscured an informal network of constantly shifting power brokers. Even before the current unrest, working with these figures was uncertain at best — “like throwing darts at balloons in a dark room,” as one senior Western diplomat put it in 2009.

With the Qaddafi era coming to a likely end, how will these actors now vie for supremacy?

3 notes·
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