The Libya of 2012 is in many ways a logical extension of the Libya of 1969-2011. Though the futility of trying to integrate disparate militias into a nonexistent national army is well-known, this is far from the only void at present. Local police, border control, tax collection, court systems, news media — nearly everything required by a functioning state — are currently in the process of being retooled, reformed or, in most cases, constructed from nothing. Worse yet, a dearth of strong institutions is not where the story ends. Criticism of the politicians and technocrats working to construct these fledgling institutions is ubiquitous: they are too inexperienced; they have been out of the country for too long; they were too close to the former regime. Some combination of these labels hangs over the states modern-day leaders like black clouds. Libyas current, and very idiosyncratic, experiment in modern state-building is a direct result of the dystopian 42 years of governance under Muammar Qadhafi. Alison Pargeters new book, The Rise and Fall of Qaddafi,
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 09:06:58 +0000
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