Hot off the Presses: New Arab Reform Bulletin
December 4th, 2008 by Jason
The December issue of Carnegie’s Arab Reform Bulletin is up. With characteristic excellence, the new issue includes an article on Iraq’s upcoming provincial elections, and a piece analyzing the evolution of Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi’s political ideology.
We also want to highlight an article by POMED Research Associate James Liddell on Moroccan parliamentary politics. In it, he discusses the collusion between the palace and various political parties to undermine the appeal of the Islamist PJD.
Posted in Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Political Parties | Comment »
Succession Roulette in Libya
December 4th, 2008 by Jason
Succession speculation in the Arab world is always fun, as it leads to that irresistable urge among democracy promoters to hope for what Marina Ottaway calls a “wait for deliverance”: the hope that a bold, enlightened, educated-at-Oxford, son-of-a tyrant will finally ascend to power and usher in a liberal democratic utopia just before he resigns and calls for free and fair national elections.
At Bitterlemons, Dana Moss doesn’t go nearly that far, but nonetheless adeptly surveys the succession scenarios in Libya. Turns out there are only two, both involving offspring of the good Colonel. In the lead is Saif al-Islam (graduate study in Vienna, not Oxford, thanks), who has high visibility and frequently publicly announces his vision for political reform in Libya. Though Saif’s rhetoric in many ways fits the profile of the mythic Deliverer, Moss notes that he is far from a shoo-in, and some of his statements have called into question his commitment to reform.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Libya, Reform | Comment »
Statesman Gaddafi Still Rules a Police State
November 20th, 2008 by Jason
In the Post, Mohamed Eljahmi, brother of jailed Libyan dissident Fathi Eljahmi, reminds us of the Libyan government’s miserable human rights record. As Libyan tyrant Moammar Gaddafi rejoins polite society, receives congratulatory phone calls from the U.S. president, and son Saif gets an audience with Secretary Rice, Libya remains a police state and democracy advocates like Eljahmi languish in Gaddafi’s dungeons.
The writer laments U.S. inaction and hypocrisy: “[U]nder the Bush administration, the State Department continues to engage Arab dictators at the expense of dissidents who support transitions to peaceful, modern societies.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Human Rights, Libya, US foreign policy | Comment »
Libya: Libertarian Paradise
September 17th, 2008 by Jason
Libya is about to take a sharp turn from totalitarian hell to libertarian paradise. The Financial Times reports that Muammer Gaddafi, eccentric as ever, has decided that most government ministries will be completely disbanded. Oil wealth will be distributed directly to the people, leaving them to organize and manage the economy themselves. By the beginning of the year, the only institutions remaining will be security, defense, foreign affairs, and energy.
Healthcare? Education? Potholes? The Colonel has an answer: “Each one of you, prepare to take his portion of the wealth and spend it as you wish.”
Before Ron Paul runs out to get his visa, FT prudently reminds us that, “Mr. Gaddafi has a habit of announcing big decisions, then reversing them.”
Posted in Libya, Reform | Comment »
Stability vs. Democracy: Sec. Rice in North Africa
September 9th, 2008 by Jason
Secretary Rice continued her tour of North Africa with visits to Algeria and Tunisia. Her meetings with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and President Zine Abidine Ben Ali, respectively, focused on counterterrorism cooperation. Though she said she raised the issue of democratic reform in private meetings. “We talked about internal matters here in Tunisia and about the course of reform,” Rice said. “We have been very clear that we would hope that Tunisia would do more.”
In Algeria, Rice called President Bouteflika “truly one of the wise men” of the region. No word on who else makes the secretary’s “wise men” short list.
Bret Stephens in the WSJ argues that Rice’s rapprochment with Libya represents the final “triumph of the stability agenda over the freedom one.”
Posted in Algeria, Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, Human Rights, Libya, Tunisia | 1 Comment »
Michele Dunne on Libya
September 4th, 2008 by Jason
Michele Dunne, in a commentary for the Carnegie Endowment, urges the United States to not fall into complacency after its recent diplomatic successes with Libya. Dunne argues that the U.S. should not be satisfied with merely normalizing relations with Libya, and instead use its growing influence to press the long-isolated nation on human rights abuses, as well as encourage and support reform in Libyan civil society and education.
Posted in Diplomacy, Human Rights, Libya, Reform | Comment »
Qaddafi to Rice: We’re Frenemies
September 3rd, 2008 by Jason
Ahead of Secretary Rice’s historic visit to Libya later this week, Libyan president Moammar Gaddafi has said that Libya and the Unites States are no longer enemies but are not quite friends. “Let them leave us alone, and we would leave them alone,” he said. It will be the first visit by a secretary of state to Libya since John Foster Dulles in 1953.
Joshua Keating at the Foreign Policy blog notes that this is just one more step in Gaddafi’s evolution from a corrupt, authoritarian sponsor-of-terror into a corrupt, authoritarian non-sponsor-of-terror.
Posted in Diplomacy, Libya, US foreign policy | 1 Comment »
The Ideal U.S.-Libyan Relationship
April 17th, 2008 by Amanda
Amb. David Mack of the Middle East Institute comments on the changing relationship between the United States and Libya, saying that many members of Congress wish to “tie normalization of relations to full satisfaction of claims against Libya by US victims of terrorism.”
The commentary notes that a passed defense authorization bill limits Libyan access to US capital markets is causing problems for both investors and businesses in both countries. It attributes improved relations to the US and the UN, saying that they have “responded with step- by-step measures to reward good Libyan behavior and take advantage of the possibilities for resumed economic ties and new forms of security cooperation.”
Mack also recognizes that “there is no denying that Libya is ruled by a dictator,” but that US relationships should not be contingent upon “ideal democracies with free market economies.” Rather, he claims that the US should “transform countries from adversaries to partners in dealing with a world of global threats to all of us.”
Posted in Libya, Terrorism, US foreign policy | Comment »
Qadhafi Undercutting Progress in Libya?
April 11th, 2008 by Stephen
This International Herald-Tribune editorial warns that progress on normalization of U.S.-Libyan relations “is in danger of being derailed because of Qaddafi’s hesitation to free an ailing critic of the regime whom Libyan authorities had promised to release from incarceration in a psychiatric hospital.” It describes the case of Fathi al-Jahmi, a former provincial governor who has been jailed for the past four years for “calling for democracy and a free press, and for openly deriding Qaddafi’s cult of personality.”
Posted in Human Rights, Libya | Comment »
Libya’s Tepid Democracy
March 31st, 2008 by Kent
A Washington Post editorial questions how far Libya has come towards democracy. While the editorial admits that the government has sought warmer relations with the United States since it renounced its support of terrorism in 2003, the editorial notes that the country’s leader, Moammar Gaddafi, has not done enough to progress human rights and civil liberties in the country. “The United States is once again being tempted with a trade-off: friendly dealings with an Arab autocracy vs. support for Arab democrats.”
Posted in Libya | Comment »
Qadaffi Given a Pass on Democracy?
March 31st, 2008 by Amanda
An editorial in The Washington Post comments that Libyan President Moammar Qadaffi receives “full diplomatic relations with the United States” despite maintaining an oppressive regime. He speaks today via video teleconference at the Ritz Carlton in Washington where the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch is the keynote speaker.
The reason?
The author cites that “the turning point came in 2003, when Mr. Qaddafi renounced terrorism,” providing the United States its seemingly incessant foreign policy dilemma: “friendly dealings with an Arab autocracy vs. support for Arab democrats”?
Posted in Human Rights, Libya, US foreign policy | Comment »
Unfair Forgiveness of Libya?
March 7th, 2008 by Sharlina
Michael Rubin at The Daily Star criticizes European policy toward Libya and its leader Moammar Gadhafi, arguing that the policy is “based more on a desire to promote trade and constrain African migration to the Schengen zone, and less on any human rights or political reform concerns.” Rubin urges the Bush Administration and Europe to not commend Libya for falsities of reform, stating that it is not only dangerous in Libya’s case, but also for “rogues like Syria, Iran, and North Korea [who] now understand that Western demands are ephemeral and delay will pay.”
Posted in Human Rights, Libya, Reform, US foreign policy | Comment »
Carnegie’s Arab Reform Bulletin for March
March 6th, 2008 by Sharlina
A highly recommended read, the Arab Reform Bulletin of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is now available in its March edition. The issue contains an analysis of the the latest efforts by Arab leaders to stifle Arab media, an examination of Morocco’s Party of Justice and Development (PJD)’s attempts at inclusion, and a look at Fatah’s future prospects of survival.
In its news roundup, the Bulletin features coverage of the delay in Presidential elections in Lebanon, abolition of Libyan ministries, and efforts by many to release prisoners in Bahrain, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Posted in Arab media, Bahrain, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Publications, Tunisia | Comment »
Pressing Libya for Change
January 8th, 2008 by Sharlina
An International Herald Tribune editorial argues that Libya must acknowledge its deplorable human rights record before the country can make any progress towards rehabilitation. The article urges a careful calibration of Western re-engagement, especially considering Libya’s disregard for international norms on torture and jailing political prisoners. “Gadhafi needs to understand that Libya’s responsibilities don’t end just because its isolation has.”
Posted in Human Rights, Libya | Comment »
‘Petrocracy’ vs. Democracy
December 20th, 2007 by Sean
Today in U.S. News and World Report, Fouad Ajami argues that oil wealth leads to increased state confidence and authoritarianism, “casting aside popular will” and leading to ‘irrational’ results in countries including Qatar, Libya, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Posted in Iran, Libya, Oil, Qatar, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
Qaddafi Goes to Paris: Next Stop Washington?
December 17th, 2007 by Sean
Following a business trip to France, Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi began his first official visit to Spain yesterday. On the occasion of his visit, Mona Eltahawy questions the wisdom of laying out the “welcome mat for a dictator,” and concludes: “who said the price of Libyan human rights was cheap?“
In this week’s U.S. News and World Report, Thomas Omestad writes of the stalled process of normalizing relations between the U.S. and Libya, as Congressional leaders have registered their dissatisfaction. In this context, David Schenker argues in today’s CS Monitor that while “imperfect… Libya’s rehabilitation remains the best working model,” one from which the U.S. can learn difficult lessons about engaging with authoritarian states.
Posted in Diplomacy, Libya, US foreign policy | Comment »
Reform on the Horizon For Libya?
September 25th, 2007 by Sean
The Economist has an interesting article this week on potential reform of Libya’s economic and government institutions, focusing on the progressive stance taken by Seif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of the long-standing ruler Muammar Qaddafi.
Posted in Libya, Reform | Comment »
Democratizing Libya
August 22nd, 2007 by Audrey
On TPM Cafe, Amitai Etzioni discusses Libya, praising Gaddafi; “He deserves three cheers. Now the time is ripe to urge him to also democratize.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Libya | Comment »
Gaddafi’s Son Announces Reform Program
August 21st, 2007 by Shir
Sayf al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, has announced a plan for reforms to include a new constitution and “national dialogue,” FP Passport highlights. In his announcement Gaddafi criticized the current political system for banning political dissent and a freely-elected parliament, and called for independent media and civil society. Excluded from the reform program would be any discussion of his father’s rule, he said.
Posted in Libya | Comment »
Carnegie’s Arab Reform Bulletin - July
July 11th, 2007 by Shir
The July issue of the Arab Reform Bulletin of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is now available. It features a look at the rocky start on economic reform in Libya, an analysis of the criminalization of government criticism in Arab states, and an examination of Iraq’s influence in a declining Jordanian economy by POMED’s Chair David DeBartolo.
In addition, the Bulletin includes critical news developments, like the announcement of a forthcoming democratic Islamist party in Egypt, “Union for Freedom.” The whole issue is a highly recommended read.
Posted in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Publications | Comment »
