Libya

Publications (4)

Libya is a complex country, divided by regional and tribal loyalties, though tentatively united by a common faith. Islam has long played a central role in Libyan political life. The Senussi religious order led resistance to Italian imperialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After World War II, a pro-Western Senussi monarch governed the country until 1969, when Muammar al-Gaddafi overthrew the monarchy in a military coup. Gadhafi did not hesitate to appeal to religious sentiments to legitimize his rule. His distinctive and despotic governing style included the establishment of numerous state-led religious institutions and the passage of multiple laws promoting Gadhafi's idiosyncratic understanding of Islam. At the same time, Gadhafi repressed Islamic clerics and Islamist leaders who threatened his rule. Following Gadhafi’s overthrow in 2011, Libya is embarking on a shaky path towards stability under an interim government. The role of Islam in the new state remains to be seen, though many emerging leaders emphasize the importance of adherence to Islamic principles.

Libya Since 1969: Qadhafi’s Revolution Revisited

July 1, 2008

This volume, edited by Dirk Vandewalle, presents the most recent scholarship on Libya under Qadhafi. Contributors focus on Libyan political Islam and political elites, political economy and oil rents, foreign relations, and Libya’s role in greater North Africa. Through a variety of interpretive lenses, the book presents a panoramic view of Libyan politics, economics, and religion and reveals the Qadhafi regime to be surprisingly resilient despite mounting challenges. This resilience is a...

The Libyan Paradox

December 1, 2007

Luis Martinez's The Libyan Paradox focuses on the reintegration of Libya into the international economic and political system beginning in the late 1980s and culminating in the lifting of U.N. sanctions in 2003. Despite economic liberalization and greater international recognition, Libya remained a corrupt oligarchy without a developed civil society. Martinez examines this paradox and explains the persistence of Gaddafi’s authoritarianism in the face of Libyan realignment. He focuses his...

A History of Modern Libya

January 1, 2006

Dirk Vandewalle's A History of Modern Libya analyzes Libya’s political developments from the 19th century to the modern day. According to Vandewalle, Libya is characterized by a lack of functioning institutions and state structures. He traces the absence of these institutions through the Ottoman period, the Italian occupation, the Senussi Monarchy, and the Gaddafi regime. Gaddafi’s revolutionary ideology of direct democracy, known as jamahiriya, attempted to fill the institutional void left...

The Green Book: The Solution to the Problem of Democracy, the Solution to the Economic Problem, the Social Basis of the Third Universal Theory

January 1, 1975

Originally published in 1975, the Green Book is a collection of aphorisms, social commentary, economics, and political theory intended to explain the philosophy of Gaddafi and serve as an informal constitution for Libya. Modeled on Mao’s Little Red Book, The Green Book condemns private property, class stratification, imperialism, and Western-style modernization. Gaddafi proposes Jamahiriya, an ideology combining elements of communism, Islam, and Bedouin tribalism within a system of...