Libya
All countries-
Khalifa Haftar's role in the Libyan civil war
The fight against political Islam
The news that General Khalifa Haftar had been rushed to the military hospital in Paris on 5 April 2018 for the treatment of a serious health problem caused a variety of reactions in Libya: shock and anxiety on one side; jubilance and rejoicing on the other. To his supporters, he is the "Saviour of Libya"; to his adversaries, the "new Gaddafi". Farag Al Esha provides a portrait of this controversial figure
-
NGO ship rescues Europe-bound migrants in Mediterranean
The search-and-rescue ship Aquarius saved nearly 300 people in the Mediterranean Sea over Easter 2018. During one operation, European maritime authorities prevented the NGO workers from rescuing 80-90 men. By Filip Warwick
-
EU and the Maghreb
Fair trade for a level playing field
To mitigate the root causes of flight and migration, Germanyʹs federal government is contemplating fair-trade agreements with refugee countries of origin. The North African experience shows this will require a re-think of EU policy. By Nassir Djafari
-
Tyranny in the Islamic world
Keeping the tribe alive
In this essay, Libyan author Faraj Alasha explains how Arab autocrats use tribal logic to run institutions of state, turning political parties into family clubs and loyalty to the country into loyalty to the head of the ruling clan
-
Book review: a ″Banthology″ of short stories
Framing the dangerous nations
Born in a difficult space, this seven-story collection celebrates the work of prose artists from Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Libya, and Iraq – the seven nations on Donald Trump′s January 2017 travel-ban diktat. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
-
Interview with Libyan author Hisham Matar
″You can't turn back the clock″
London-based author Hisham Matar writes about the disappearance of his father, a member of the Libyan opposition who was kidnapped while exiled in Cairo and has never been seen since. In ″The Return″, Matar describes his own fruitless search to trace his father and Libya′s brief moment of hope following the fall of Gaddafi. Interview by Claudia Mende
-
Resolving the crisis in Libya
Another fine mess
How to resolve the conflict in Libya remains one of the most difficult and important questions facing policy-makers today. Given the complex attitudes towards foreign interventions on the ground, we need a clear strategy that will stand up to local, regional and international scrutiny. By Alison Pargeter
-
Breaking the Middle East′s cycle of terror
The two-pronged strategy
The governments of the Middle East must not allow themselves to be lulled into complacency by the ostensible fall of the Islamic State. Instead, writes Moha Ennaji, they must urgently commit to weakening the allure of radical Islam – the only way to break the cycle of terror and violence is to resolve Islam′s intra-religious conflicts
-
Libya
The Gulf States′ proxy war: Baiting at a distance
Of the civil wars ravaging the Arab world, the one Westerners hear least about may yet prove the most dangerous: Libya. Commentary by Joseph Hammond and Suhaib Kebhaj
-
America′s dangerous anti-Iran posturing
For a farewell to arms
The Middle East is fraught with bitter national and sectarian conflicts that realistically can only be solved by compromise. Rather than another round of demonisation, what the region needs, argues Jeffrey Sachs, is an era of diplomacy that focuses on normalising relations
-
Arab nationalism and political Islam
Secularism – ″the other option″?
In his essay, Syrian publicist and writer Hammud Hammud debunks conventional Islamist prejudices regarding the concept of secularism and examines the ambivalence of political Islam and Arab nationalism
-
Authoritarian rule in the Arab world
Fear of change
Given their poor records in so many areas, how is it that authoritarian regimes in the Arab world manage to cling so successfully to power? In this essay, Amr Hamzawy examines how the ruling elites in the countries of the Arab spring use a mixture of oppression and fear of chaos and disorder to nip any demands for democratic change in the bud