Download or read book The Libyan Paradox written by Luis Martínez and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The militant attitude of the United States after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 inspired the leadership of Libya to change its confrontational attitude towards America and Europe. The regime abandoned its development of nuclear weapons and opened its economy to the West. Nevertheless, Muammar Gaddafi, the leader of the Libyan Revolution, has found ways to consolidate his hold on the country. In this controversial book, Luis Martinez suggests that the future of Libya now lies in becoming, paradoxically, what he terms an "authoritarian liberal state."

Download or read book Understanding Libya Since Gaddafi written by Ulf Laessing and published by Hurst & Company. This book was released on 2020 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why has Libya fallen apart since 2011? The world has largely given up trying to understand how the revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi has left the country a failed state and a major security headache for Europe. Gaddafi's police state has been replaced by yet another dictatorship, amidst a complex conflict of myriad armed groups, Islamists, tribes, towns and secularists. What happened? One of few foreign journalists to have lived in post-revolution Tripoli, Ulf Laessing has unique insight into the violent nature of post-Gaddafi politics. Confronting threats from media-hostile militias and jihadi kidnappings, in a world where diplomats retreat to their compounds and guns are drawn at government press conferences, Laessing has kept his ear to the ground and won the trust of many key players. Understanding Libya Since Gaddafi is an original blend of personal anecdote and nuanced Libyan history. It offers a much-needed diagnosis of why war has erupted over a desert nation of just 6 million, and of how the country blessed with Africa's greatest energy reserves has been reduced to state collapse.

Download or read book The Paradox of Mass Politics written by W. Russell Neuman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A central current in the history of democratic politics is the tensions between the political culture of an informed citizenry and the potentially antidemocratic impulses of the larger mass of individuals who are only marginally involved in the political world. Given the public's low level of political interest and knowledge, it is paradoxical that the democratic system works at all. In The Paradox of Mass Politics W. Russell Neuman analyzes the major election surveys in the United States for the period 1948-1980 and develops for each a central index of political sophistication based on measures of political interest, knowledge, and style of political conceptualization. Taking a fresh look at the dramatic findings of public apathy and ignorance, he probes the process by which citizens acquire political knowledge and the impact of their knowledge on voting behavior. The book challenges the commonly held view that politically oriented college-educated individuals have a sophisticated grasp of the fundamental political issues of the day and do not rely heavily on vague political symbolism and party identification in their electoral calculus. In their expression of political opinions and in the stability and coherence of those opinions over time, the more knowledgeable half of the population, Neuman concludes, is almost indistinguishable from the other half. This is, in effect, a second paradox closely related to the first. In an attempt to resolve a major and persisting paradox of political theory, Neuman develops a model of three publics, which more accurately portrays the distribution of political knowledge and behavior in the mass population. He identifies a stratum of apoliticals, a large middle mass, and a politically sophisticated elite. The elite is so small (less than 5 percent) that the beliefs and behavior of its member are lost in the large random samples of national election surveys, but so active and articulate that its views are often equated with public opinion at large by the powers in Washington. The key to the paradox of mass politics is the activity of this tiny stratum of persons who follow political issues with care and expertise. This book is essential reading for concerned students of American politics, sociology, public opinion, and mass communication.

Download or read book The Paradox of Being written by Poul Andersen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of truth has never been more urgent than today, when the distortion of facts and the imposition of pseudo-realities in the service of the powerful have become the order of the day. In The Paradox of Being Poul Andersen addresses the concept of truth in Chinese Daoist philosophy and ritual. His approach is unapologetically universalist, and the book may be read as a call for a new way of studying Chinese culture, one that does not shy away from approaching “the other” in terms of an engagement with “our own” philosophical heritage. The basic Chinese word for truth is zhen, which means both true and real, and it bypasses the separation of the two ideas insisted on in much of the Western philosophical tradition. Through wide-ranging research into Daoist ritual, both in history and as it survives in the present day, Andersen shows that the concept of true reality that informs this tradition posits being as a paradox anchored in the inexistent Way (Dao). The preferred way of life suggested by this insight consists in seeking to be an exception to ordinary norms and rules of behavior which nonetheless engages what is common to us all.

Download or read book The Long Road to Inclusive Institutions in Libya written by The World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2023-03-20 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This sourcebook compiles analytical work that has been cultivated over the past several years by the World Bank and partner organizations of Libya. Utilizing several analytical techniques, the book makes a unique contribution to the discussion on Libya's medium- to long-term challenges.

Download or read book The Violence of Petro dollar Regimes written by Luis Martínez and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The creation of oil rents in the 1970s put Algeria, Iraq, and Libya on the fast track to modernization. Massive revenues turned Algeria into the Mediterranean dragon, Libya into an emirate, and Iraq into the preeminent rising military power of the Arab world. From a political perspective, the progressive socialism of these countries would seem to have engendered profound, promising change: increased rights for women, positive urbanization, and improved education. Yet oil wealth's realities are beyond disillusioning. The international community now wonders whether reform can ever penetrate such nations and if the west will ever enjoy a secure gas supply. Offering the first global evaluation of these issues, Luis Martinez considers the nature of oil-sponsored violence in Algeria, Iraq, and Libya and its ability both to weaken and bolster their regimes.

Download or read book Everyday Politics in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya written by Matteo Capasso and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-25 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treating the everyday as central to the study of regional and international politics, this book reconstructs the last two decades of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, leading up to the 2011 events that sanctioned its fall. It provides a unique and vivid look into the political dynamics that characterized the everyday lives of Libyans, offering a compelling counterargument to those who insist on framing the history of the country as a stateless, authoritarian, and rogue state. Based on the collection of oral histories, what sets the tempo of this journey is an extensive collection of personal anecdotes, moods and emotions, popular jokes and rumors. In weaving the threads that link these quotidian lives to Libya’s interaction with wider international and geopolitical dynamics, the book offers a unique and timely analysis of the 2011 events that witnessed the fall of the regime reaching the current state of violence, war, and hope.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Libya written by Ronald Bruce St John and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-06-04 with total page 551 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the states of the Middle East and North Africa, Libya has long been the country about which the least is known. It is only in recent times that scholars and the general public alike have begun to appreciate the complexity of Libya's turbulent history including the recent February 17th Revolution in 2011 when protests broke out throughout Libya, demanding better living conditions and more job opportunities. When the Qaddafi regime responded with force, killing scores of unarmed civilians, the protesters called for regime change. In what came to be known as the February 17th Revolution, the Qaddafi regime was overthrown and Qaddafi was killed in October 2011. In July 2012, the Libyan people elected a General National Congress charged with overseeing the drafting of a new constitution and the election of a national government. This fifth edition of Historical Dictionary of Libya covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, society, conflicts, and the culture of Libya. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Libya.

Download or read book Revolts and the Military in the Arab Spring written by Sean Burns and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-01-30 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through detailed exploration of events in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Syria and Yemen, Sean Burns here breaks down the concept of professionalism within the armed forces into its component parts and demonstrates how variation in military structures determines their behaviour. In so doing, and by emphasising historical context and drawing on a wide range of political science theory, Burns sheds fresh light onto the ways in which military structure affects the potential for democratic transition or the course of civil war. With this book he presented a wide-ranging study of the Middle East which provides key tools to understanding the opportunities for democratisation, both during the Arab Spring and beyond, and which is therefore essential reading for anyone working on the Middle East, popular uprisings and the politics of repression.

Download or read book NATO s Failure in Libya Lessons for Africa written by Horace Campbell and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings erupted in Africa, in the first two months of the year 2011, with the chant, 'the people want to bring down the regime', there was hope all over the continent that these rebellions were part of a wider African Awakening. President Ben Ali of Tunisia was forced to step down and fled to Saudi Arabia. Within a month of Ben Ali's departure, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was removed from power by the people, who mobilised a massive revolutionary movement in the country. Four days after the ousting of Mubarak, sections of the Libyan people rebelled in Benghazi. Within days, this uprising was militarised, with armed resistance countered by declarations from the Libyan leadership vowing to use raw state power to root out the rebellion. The first Libyan demonstrations occurred on February 15, 2011, but by February 21 there were reports that innocent civilians were in imminent danger of being massacred by the army. This information was embellished by reports of the political leadership branding the rebellious forces as 'rats'.

Download or read book Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya written by Horace Campbell and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this incisive account, scholar Horace Campbell investigates the political and economic crises of the early twenty-first century through the prism of NATO’s intervention in Libya. He traces the origins of the conflict, situates it in the broader context of the Arab Spring uprisings, and explains the expanded role of a post-Cold War NATO. This military organization, he argues, is the instrument through which the capitalist class of North America and Europe seeks to impose its political will on the rest of the world, however warped by the increasingly outmoded neoliberal form of capitalism. The intervention in Libya—characterized by bombing campaigns, military information operations, third party countries, and private contractors—exemplifies this new model. Campbell points out that while political elites in the West were quick to celebrate the intervention in Libya as a success, the NATO campaign caused many civilian deaths and destroyed the nation’s infrastructure. Furthermore, the instability it unleashed in the forms of militias and terrorist groups have only begun to be reckoned with, as the United States learned when its embassy was attacked and personnel, including the ambassador, were killed. Campbell’s lucid study is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this complex and weighty course of events.

Download or read book Libya in Western Foreign Policies 1911 2011 written by Saskia Van Genugten and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-05-18 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Libya has a short, volatile history. Foreigners played a significant role in shaping Libya’s institutions and policies, and this book explores longer term trends in the relations between Libya and the West, placing current developments in their historical context. Throughout history, the globe’s most powerful actors have regarded Libya as an outlier state of little significance. Libya belonged neither here nor there and never fell under the full protection of any significant global or regional powerhouse. Libya’s weak national identity, its weak institutions and its peripheral position have made it vulnerable to external influences and interventions. As a result, Libya repeatedly falls prey to foreign powers wanting to flex their muscles. As this book narrates, this was the case in 1911, in 2011 and several times in between.

Download or read book A History of Modern Libya written by Dirk Vandewalle and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-23 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of the civil war and Qadhafi's demise, the time is ripe for a new edition of Dirk Vandewalle's classic history of Libya. The book, which was originally published in 2006, traces the country's history back to the 1900s, through the Italian occupation in the early twentieth century, the Sanusi monarchy and, thereafter, to the revolution of 1969 and the accession of Qadhafi. The following chapters analyse the economics and politics of Qadhafi's revolution, offering insights into the man and his ideology as reflected in his Green Book. The new edition covers the intervening years, since 2005, when, courted by the West, Qadhafi came in from the cold. At home, though, his people were disillusioned, and economic liberalization came too late to forestall revolution. In an epilogue, the author reflects upon Qadhafi's premiership and the legacy he leaves behind.

Download or read book Islamist Radicalisation in North Africa written by George Joffe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-06-12 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the current issues and analytical approaches to the phenomenon of radicalisation in North Africa. Taking a comprehensive approach to the subject, it looks at the processes that lead to radicalisation, rather than the often violent outcomes.

Download or read book Libya From Repression to Revolution written by M. Cherif Bassiouni and published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. This book was released on 2013-12-09 with total page 997 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking new volume provides the first comprehensive review of the Libyan conflict of 2011. The book expands on and complements the report of the Libya Commission of Inquiry to the United Nations Human Rights Council, and provides the reader with the information essential to understanding the Libyan conflict, its causes and ramifications, and the difficulties the country faces as it rebuilds in the wake of 40 years of repression and the effects of a brutal civil war. The book provides a historical overview of the country and the ruinous policies of the Qadhafi regime, a chronological review of the evolution of the conflict, a description of the belligerents and their organizational makeup, an account of the NATO intervention and its legality, a basic legal characterization of conduct of the belligerents and the various accountability mechanisms pursued thus far, and an appraisal of the post-conflict period, as well as a detailed factual assessment and legal characterization of ten different theaters of conflict, including Benghazi, Tripoli, Misrata, Sirte and the Nafusa Mountains.

Download or read book Libya written by Ronald Bruce St John and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The History of Libya written by Bukola A. Oyeniyi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-03-22 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covers Libyan history from the prehistoric period through the Phoenician, Roman, and Islamic/Ottoman periods to Italian colonization, independence, and the 2011 uprising and civil war. Libya experienced its own Arab Spring in February of 2011, ultimately leading to a civil war in which different groups have since been vying for power. How did the events of Libya's past lead to this point? This addition to the Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations series takes a chronological approach to examining Libyan history. Considering the history of Libya from its earliest times to the present, it features government records, memoirs, and diaries and provides a general overview of the history of Libya as well as a discussion on geography. While not discounting the contributions of traders and invaders to Libya's history, this book, unlike others, identifies and traces the histories of indigenous Libyans, showcasing their achievements while situating them within the broader context of contact with Libya had by groups of people from Europe to the Arabian Peninsula. By demonstrating that Libyans had their own unique history prior to colonization, the book works to essentially decolonize Libyan history. Rounding out the chapters are a timeline, glossary, appendix of notable people, and annotated bibliography.