The Libya That Khadafy Left Behind
By now it is clear that last year’s world-changing Arab Spring was never one event with a single set of causes and effects. Though revolt in one country helped trigger revolt in another, each of the Arab states that underwent a revolution fell apart in its own distinct way. As they try to recover and rebuild their societies, that means they face radically different challenges.
But perhaps none is confronted with such an unusual task as Libya, the oil-rich Mediterranean country that has shaken off the repressive 40-year regime of Moammar Khadafy. For Libyans, Khadafy’s legacy shapes everything about the current moment, from the need to create a governing structure for what was essentially a stateless society to the struggle to define a new sense of national identity.
Unraveling the nature of Khadafy’s peculiar rule will be key to understanding Libya’s future, argues Alison Pargeter, a British analyst and writer specializing in North Africa and the Middle East. In a new book, “Libya: The Rise and Fall of Qaddafi,” she outlines the ways that Khadafy made Libya into a reflection of himself, and how he saw its people as subjects in a laboratory where he could test often bizarre political, social, and economic ideas.