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Libya Foreign Policy And Government Guide ... Read more

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Libya is coming in from the cold, but for most of the three decades following Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's self-styled revolution in 1969, the country was politically isolated and labelled a pariah state.Dirk Vandewalle, one of only a handful of Western scholars to visit the country during this time, is intimately acquainted with Libya.He offers a lucid and comprehensive account of Libya's past, and corrects some of the misunderstandings about its present. The story begins in the 1900s with a portrait of Libya's desert terrain and the personalities that shaped its development. Professor Vandewalle then covers Libya's history during the Italian colonial period (1911-1943) and the monarchy that ruled between 1951 and 1969. He goes on to discuss the subsequent regime of Colonel Qadhafi and the economic, political, and ideological developments that he engendered. Finally, he describes the most recent events that brought Libya back into the international fold.As the first comprehensive history of Libya over the last two decades, this book will be welcomed by scholars and students of North Africa, the Middle East, and by those who are visiting and doing business in the region.Diederik (Dirk) Vandewalle is Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College, and former chair of its Asian and Middle Eastern Studies program.His academic specialty focuses on the political economy of North Africa, and on strategies of political and economic liberalization in the region. Vandewalle is the author of Libya Since Independence: Oil and State-building ( 1998), editor of two volumes on Libya and North Africa, and author of numerous journal articles. He has received, among a number of awards, a Fulbright and Social Science Research Council grant for his research, and has been a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Institute of International Development and at Harvard's Center of Middle Eastern Studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Weak History of Libya Since the Ottoman Period
This is a concise history of modern Libya, with token background from the Ottoman period, slightly more detail from the Italian colonial period, and the vast majority of its focus on the monarchy (1951-1969) and the Qadhafi period (1969 to present).The author deals almost exclusively with political and economic history, with very little attention to cultural or religious themes.

Even on such limited terms, the book fails in a number of ways.First, Vandewalle has an odd habit of not defining terms that a reader of such a general history might find useful.For example, he refers often to the Sublime Porte -- a term that a general student of the Middle East and especially of the Ottoman Empire ought to know, certainly, but probably not familiar to the general reader.Another example is the Bab al-Aziziyya, which the author defines on page 150, but which he began using on page 121 (without any hint that a definition was forthcoming).

Second, and more importantly, the book lacks a surprising amount of detail.We are informed that a small group accomplished a coup against King Idris in September, 1969, but we are told almost nothing else: where did the coup happen?How did it happen?Perhaps a palace was stormed, or military installations seized?We are not even told of the fate of King Idris -- was he executed, banished, imprisoned, or left alone?These are all natural questions when dealing with something as momentous as the coup that changed Libya from a shaky kingdom to a radical, terrorist-sponsoring anti-state.

We are informed that two Libyan planes were shot down over the Gulf of Sirt after some kind of dispute.What was the nature of the dispute?Again, we are not told.And very frequently, as with the Gulf of Sirt incident and the Lockerbie bombing, Vandewalle makes allusion to the matter long before offering what scant detail he does provide, meaning the reader must already have some basic background or be left with no means of evaluating the validity of the author's interpretation.

As to that last point, another clear weakness of the book is that the footnotes are extremely sparse.Generalization is far more forgivable where the author directs the conscientious student to further information.That said, this book is a slim 206 pages of text -- the author easily could have added more helpful material without making the book unwieldly.

One final, important weakness is that the author frequently jumps around chronologically, resulting in a confused narrative.Again, the author assumes too much familiarity on the part of the reader, which familiarity makes little sense given the scope of the book.

EDIT: I recommend Libya: From Colony to Independence, by Ronald Bruce St. John, for readers interested in the subject.

Libya as of today.
I thought the book would give a modern view of customs ,geography and archytecture of this country but it was'nt like this.Instead the political history is presented which by the way is written very well.
I know quite a lot of this history as Libya was my second home for years but I feel a bit neglected when the book tells nothing about the people of this region.

Libya Is Back
Libya has recently emerged from its diplomatic and economic isolation. It has settled its scores with the European Union and with the US. After some half-hearted attempts to liberalize its economy, it has now embarked in a genuine program of economic reforms, recruiting world experts to help in the effort.

These international experts will be well inspired to read and meditate Dirk Vandewalle's History of Modern Libya. If only to learn the lessons from their predecessors: from its independence in 1951 to the end of the Sanusi monarchy in 1969, the country benefited from a wealth of advisory reports, background studies, and strategic plans originating from international financial agencies. At first, these reports projected the country's future as, at best, one of hard-scrabble survival and, perhaps eventually, a modest level of economic growth and development.

This changed, literally almost overnight, when oil started coursing through the veins of a barely existing economy that could suddenly produce great riches. Oil revenues allowed King Idris al-Sanusi, and then Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, to create and maintain social contracts with their subjects that relied overwhelmingly on distributing largesses rather on perfecting the state.

This was partly to blame for the low sense of political community Libya still faces today, and for the depolitization of its citizen. Ever since 1969 - or perhaps more precisely since the publication of The Green Book - Libya has pursued a policyof statelessness that, at least in theory, puts all powers in the hand of the people. Ironically, as statelessness was pursued, virtually all economic activity within the country came under state control.

The result was the emergence of a state that was seemingly highly autonomous, but without much regulatory capacity, exacerbated by an ideology that celebrated this hollowing-out of state power and regulatory capabilities while projecting a sense of community forits citizen that consistently targeted units below or above the state: kinship, family, tribe, Islam, Arab nationalism, African unity.

In light of this history, the current wave of reforms is greeted by the author with cautious optimism: "While there are signs of pragmatism and of the realization among Libyan policymakers of the need for greater efficiency, there are few indications that the country's system of governance is changing or that a process of accountability is being implemented. (...) The remaining bifurcation between the formal and the informal in the country's political life, the amorphous status of Qadhafi within its political system, the inability to oppose the revolution, the lack of accountability by the country's security sector apparatuses, and the lack of clear succession rules: these challenges Libya will need to address if its proclaimed aims of reforms are to take root."

Excellant and up-to-date reference
As an expat living in Libya since August 2005 I read this book with focused interest. It has greatly helped me understandmy government bureaucratic customer. And this new insight has reduced my fustration and increased my effectiveness. ... Read more

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Libya Diplomatic Handbook (World Business, Investment and Government Library) ... Read more

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Although Libya and its current leader have been the subject of numerous accounts, few have considered how the country's tumultuous history, its institutional development, and its emergence as an oil economy combined to create a state whose rulers ignored the notion of modern statehood. International isolation and a legacy of internal turmoil have destroyed or left undocumented much of what researchers might seek to examine. Dirk Vandewalle supplies a detailed analysis of Libya's political and economic development since the country's independence in 1951, basing his account on fieldwork in Libya, archival research in Tripoli, and personal interviews with some of the country's top policymakers.Vandewalle argues that Libya represents an extreme example of what he calls a "distributive state," an oil-exporting country where an attempt at state-building coincided with large inflows of capital while political and economic institutions were in their infancy. Libya's rulers eventually pursued policies that were politically expedient but proved economically ruinous, and disenfranchised local citizens. Distributive states, according to Vandewalle, may appear capable of resisting economic and political challenges, but they are ill prepared to implement policies that make the state and its institutions relevant to their citizens. Similar developments can be expected whenever local rulers do not have to extract resources from their citizens to fund the building of a modern state. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The best Political Economy Analysis of Libya
I lived in Libya for two years and worked as a UNDP officer there.Having had first hand knowledge of this country I have found few books better than Vandewalle's Libya since Independence. Not only is it an informative text about Libya's socio-economic development it is also a study of the distributive State and the very negative consequences that oil wealth can generate if mishandled.Vandewalle deals with Libya since its independence in 1949 and the political, social and economic transformation that occurred from then to the present.The text notes that the regime that was established as a result of the 1969 revolution has made great efforts to distribute the wealth accumulated from oil production among the population while promoting large scale development projects in infrastructure, education and ISI industrial development.By far the largest single development effort has been the multi-billion dollar Great Man Made River (GMMR) project designed to facilitate irrigation for agricultural production along the Libyan coastline.According to the UNDP adequate standards of living have existed for the majority of the population as a result of an extensive program of welfare spending that has included the provision of state provided basic services and subsidies for many consumer products.
Although significant, Libya's development, both before and after the Fatih Revolution, has been almost entirely patronized by the state.Whereas the government intervened in all sectors of the economy, including import and distribution, there has recently been an effort to transfer some of that responsibility to the private sector.The sharp decline of crude oil prices in the mid 1980's hurt the State's distributive capacity and made it necessary to curtail spending and adopt a measure of economic reforms to stimulate greater private sector involvement in the economy.However, the reforms have only effectively served to retract the distributive network welfare system of subsidies and services that had been one the Government's principal sources of legitimacy with the population, while economic liberalization has not contributed to the creation of a viable and productive private sector.The failure of these reforms has highlighted the institutional shortcomings of the regime that enacted them.

Love this book!!
We just used Libya since Independence in one of my middle east classes at NYU, and I just loved it.I never knew much about Libya except for what I read in the newspaper, and this was quite an eye opener.Deepened myinterest in the Middle East immeasurably.And the opening line--a Libyanproverb--is astonishing in its simplicity and farsightedness.Great book.

Best book on Libya for over a decade
A remarkable piece of work.Libya remains one of the countries in the Middle East we know little about, and Vanderwalle's account is one of the best ever.It pretty much replaces whatever has been written about thecountry during the last 10-15 years in most academic and popularpublications.It is scrupulously honest about Kaddafi's politics, andshows as no other previous account how the current Libyan leader extendedmany of his predecessor's policies.Well written and accessible, despitesomewhat a somewhat daunting theoretical chapter.A definitive analysis ofLibya since independence.

Best book on Libya so far
An amazingly comprehensive and insightful study of Libya since 1951.Goes far beyond all the hyberbolic statements the Kaddafi regime AND the United States government have made over the years by systematically putting theLibyan political experimentation in the context of Third World development. Judicious and careful, Vandewalle's access to Libya has produced what isperhaps the best book on this difficult subject in this decade.A realcontribution to the study of Libya and to middle eastern studies ingeneral.

Best book on Libya in a decade--THE definitive analysis!
Having just ordered Vandewalle's book for my seminar and lecture course, I can only wish this insightful account of Qadhafi's revolution--and its link to the Sanusi kingdom's attempt to avoid creating a modern state--had beenavailable much earlier.It is easily the most sophisticated analysis ofthe country ever written, and the thoughtful application of a modifiedrational choice and institutional literature to the puzzle of a seemingabsence of state-building in Libya is first-rate and clearly demonstrateshow political scientists/political economists can integrate theoreticalconcepts and factual material in a provocative fashion.In addition,Vandewalle writes extremely well, in a fashion that makes the theoreticalmaterial accessible even for non-specialists.This book is a realtour-de-force, recommended to anyone interested in North Africa and theMiddle East and the problem of state creation in the region. ... Read more

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This book charts in detail the West's response, particularly that of the US, to Libya's possible involvement in the bombing of the Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in 1988. ... Read more

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"At once steeped in detailed contextual knowledge and fully engaged with basic theoretical issues, Lisa Anderson's fine book can serve as an inspiration and a model for all who would push the analysis of state building in relation to social structure well beyond the European settings in which such processes have traditionally been studied. Doing comparative history at its best, Anderson uses a close comparison of Tunisia and Libya to arrive at analytic arguments sure to suggest fruitful leads to students of state formation in many areas of the world."
-Theda Skocpol, Harvard University

Moving beyond existing Eurocentric theories of state building, this work examines the role of state formation and disintegration in shaping social structure and political organization in Tunisia and Libya between 1830 and 1980.

"... an important book. Extensive research has gone into it. Scholars will treasure it. Nonspecialists who tackle it in the hope of learning more about Libya and Tunisia will not be disappointed."
-Harry Gregory, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The most recent book on Libya with a broad historic sense and a deep understanding of the subject."
-I. William Zartman, The Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, in selecting the four top books on Libya for U.S. News & World Report

"The accidents of history and geology ... have allowed one contemporary ruler [Qaddafi] to indulge at once the fundamentalist fantasy of direct theocracy and the populist fantasy of direct democracy. The spectacle is not an appealing one. But we must take note of its emergence, and be grateful for the light that Lisa Anderson has cast upon it."
-Ernest Gellner, The New Republic
Lisa Anderson is Associate Professor of Political Science and Assistant Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. ... Read more

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a Challenge to Modernization Theory
While most states of the Middle East region have pursued policies that more or less approached the prescriptions of the Modernization type meta-theories, there has been the general perception, from within and without, that the region as a whole has failed to live up to the promise of social and economic welfare that modern development was supposed to generate.The political advancement of the Region toward more pluralistic or democratic forms of government that was supposed to proceed as the inevitable result of economic and industrial transformation has been even more disappointing and lagged far below material achievements. In The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya 1830-1980 Lisa Anderson has rejected the mainstream meta-theoretical approaches to the study of the nature of development in the Middle East.Through a process of historical analysis of the socio-economic mechanisms that have characterized the nature of Libya and Tunisia's different paths of social and political transformation, Anderson has emphasized the study of state formation processes and the particular nature of a peripheral's state integration in the world capitalist system. Anderson has challenged both of the principal development meta-theories that became popular in the decades after WWII.She has contested Modernization theory's interpretation of development moving in a linear pattern through predictable stages to inevitably culminate in the establishment of a democratic capitalist state modeled on the pattern of the West.She has noted that development is not achieved without cost and that social conflict is a necessary outcome as the State balances its monopoly of authority as it coerces and encourages different social and economic actors to achieve a relative degree of stability and equity. In order to achieve this and promote a real degree of social transformation an efficient bureaucracy and public administration are crucial. Accordingly, her study has shown the contrasting development patterns of Libya and Tunisia.In the former, Anderson has stressed the persistence of kinship based societal relations and null bureaucratic development during the period of Italian colonization and the perpetuation of this pattern after independence.Oil rents made it possible for the Libyan administration to rely almost exclusively on its distributive capacity to prevent the establishment of efficient institutional and bureaucratic machinery; consequently, society and political development have not progressed toward the formation of a modern state in the Weberian sense. ... Read more

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Libya Foreign Policy and Government Guide ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from APS Review Downstream Trends, published by Pam Stein/Input Solutions on July 23, 2001. The length of the article is 795 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: LIBYA - The Government.
Publication: APS Review Downstream Trends (Newsletter)
Date: July 23, 2001
Publisher: Pam Stein/Input Solutions
Volume: 57Issue: 4Page: NA

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from APS Review Downstream Trends, published by Arab Press Service on July 27, 2009. The length of the article is 1245 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Libya - Government & Qadhafi Family Interests.
Author: Unavailable
Publication: APS Review Downstream Trends (Newsletter)
Date: July 27, 2009
Publisher: Arab Press Service
Volume: 73Issue: 4

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

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Chapters: Libyan Airlines, General People's Committee of Libya, World Islamic Call Society, Jamahiriya, Human Rights in Libya, List of Heads of Government of Libya, Libyan Passport, General People's Congress, Basic People's Congress, Foreign Ministers of Libya. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 37. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Libyan Airlines (Arabic: ; transliterated: al-Khutut al-Jawiyah al-Libiyah), is the national flag carrier airline of Libya, based in Tripoli. It operates scheduled passenger and cargo services within Libya and to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Its main base is Tripoli International Airport. The airline carried 885,000 passengers in 2007, of which 40% travelled on domestic services. It expects to carry 950,000 passengers this year. Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways, Libya's other state carrier, have recently been grouped under Libyan African Aviation Holding Company, an umbrella organisation created to oversee a co-ordinated development of Libya's air transport sector. The airline is also a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization and the International Air Transport Association. A Libyan Arab Airlines Airbus A320-200 with old livery and titles at Tripoli International Airport. The airline's name and livery were recently changed and Libyan Airlines was regrouped with Afriqiyah Airways under a new holding company.Libyan Airlines was established in 1964 as Kingdom of Libya Airlines and started services in October 1965 using Caravelle jets to Europe. It later operated as Libyan Arab Airlines and Jamahiriya Libyan Arab Airlines. Boeing 727 aircraft were operated on European services during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The London Heathrow service was stopped in the 1980s due to political problems. Boeing 707s were used on long-haul services....More: http://booksllc.net/?id=201446 ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from APS Review Downstream Trends, published by Thomson Gale on July 23, 2007. The length of the article is 2927 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: LIBYA - The Government.
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: APS Review Downstream Trends (Newsletter)
Date: July 23, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 69Issue: 4

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Libya's enigmatic Muammar Qaddafi has demonstrated a perhaps unprecedented capacity for reinvention and survival, particularly in the realm of foreign policy. Yehudit Ronen traces Libya's sometimes tortuous trajectory in international affairs across the four decades of Qaddafi's leadership.Ronen addresses a range of critical issues: oil politics, foreign military adventurism, WMDs, international terrorism, the confrontation between Islam and the West, and the constraints of US policy in the Middle East. She also sheds abundant light on the many ways that domestic politics have affected Libya's international role. From internal leadership rivalries to international strategic quandaries, she navigates the major course corrections that have reoriented the country's focus from the Arab Middle East and the Soviet Union to the African continent and the West. ... Read more

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This book describes the principal events which have shaped contemporary Libya, from independence to the Lockerbie affair. It reviews Libya's independence process, its territorial disputes with neighbors, the many abuses of human rights perpetrated by the Qadhafi regime, state terrorism and the US manipulation of the United Nations in its confrontation with Libya.
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This book examines the socioeconomic and political development of Libya from earliest times to the present, concentrating in particular on the four decades of revolutionary rule which began in 1969. Focusing on the twin themes of continuity and change, Ronald Bruce St John emphasises the full extent to which the revolutionary government has distorted the depth and breadth of the post-1969 revolution by stressing policy change at the expense of policy continuity.

Following a brief look at pre-independence Libya, the author explores the way in which the fragility of the post-independence state, unable to contain rising Arab nationalist struggles and growing economic expectations, opened the way for the Free Unionist Officers led by Muammar al-Qaddafi to seize power. He then traces the progressive development of the revolutionary state through four stages:

• the consolidation of power to 1973
• the projection of power to 1986
• withdrawal and retrenchment to 1999
• the redefinition of the state after 1999.

Highlighting the issues facing the contemporary state and providing possible solutions, this book will be an important text for students of current affairs, history, North Africa and the Middle East.

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Customer Reviews (1)

Nasser's example...
Qadafhi's`revolution' has been protected from any adverse public outrage.
Differences of opinion with the regime wouldn't be acceptable until proof had been offered.
The Coup was not harmful to the outgoing politicians clutching at any straw for they were not, in the first place, fully committed to the deposed King Idris al-Senussi.
The best beneficiary was Gamal Addul Nasser, who after `his' 1967 defeat (Arab/Israeli War of June 67), Nasser showed understanding and sympathy with the young `free officers' in Libya and never withheld his consent when the Coup was a fait accompli.
Actually, the Libyan Coup had been a mirror image of Nasser and his colleagues seventeen years before.
Many, in the Arab world, believed that Nasser concocted the Coup whereas it came mainly by the nearest chance. King Idris was on vacation in Turkey (perhaps for medical treatment), when he was deposed in bloodless Coup. The second `blood free' in the Arab World in an Arab country located in Africa.
A few days adter the Coup, Nasser sent his emissaries to Libya to meet, for the first time, the new leaders and they came back to Egypt and boosted Nasser's shattered morals that `they are your men Rayyess'[Leader].
History will record that, without his knowledge, Nasser inspired the young Libyan officers. "He reminds me of my youth" Nasser spoke of Qadafhi to his confidant Hassanein Heikal.
Nasser's example of a `clean' Coup in Egypt was 'copied' in Tripoli and this may well have combined to save many lives in Libya.
... Read more