Podcast
15.03.2021

Libya, 10 Years Later

Katharina Emschermann speaks with Brian McQuinn about 10 years of civil war in Libya.

In the fifth episode of the “Berlin Security Beat”, Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre talks to Brian McQuinn, Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of Regina, Canada, about the Libyan conflict.

As an expert on armed groups and peace building, Brian McQuinn elaborates on the origins of the 2011 Libyan uprisings, the “who’s who” of the ensuing conflict, his experience living among rebels in Misrata for ethnographic studies, and the many “ifs” deciding the fate of the Libyan peace process.

Listen to the episode: 


Bibliography

Badi, Emadeddin/ Lacher, Wolfram (2021): Agree to Disagree: Libya’s New Unity Government, in: Sada, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/83839

Cole, Peter/ McQuinn, Brian (eds) (2015): The Libyan Revolution and its Aftermath, London: Hurst Publishers, https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190210960.001.0001/acprof-9780190210960

Costantini, Irene (2016): Conflict Dynamics in Post-2011 Libya: A Political Economy Perspective, in: Conflict, Security & Development, 16(5), 405-422, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14678802.2016.1212534

Dassù, Marta (2020): Why the War in Libya is a Test for Italy – and for a Geopolitical European Commission, https://ecfr.eu/article/commentary_why_the_war_in_libya_is_a_test_for_italy_and_for_a_geopolitical/

Kuperman, Alan J. (2015): Obama's Libya Debacle: How a Well-Meaning Intervention Ended in Failure, Foreign Affairs, 94 (2), 66-77, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/libya/2019-02-18/obamas-libya-debacle

Lacher, Wolfram (2021): Unser schwieriger Partner: Deutschlands und Frankreichs erfolgloses Engagement in Libyen und Mali [Our Difficult Partner: Germany’s and France’s Unsuccessful Engagement in Libya and Mali], SWP-Studie 2021/S 03, https://www.swp-berlin.org/publikation/deutschlands-und-frankreichs-erfolgloses-engagement-in-libyen-und-mali/ (in German)

McQuinn, Brian (2013): Assessing (In) security after the Arab Spring: The Case of Libya, in: PS: Political Science and Politics, 46 (4), 716-720, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/abs/assessing-insecurity-after-the-arab-spring-the-case-of-libya/07D6A2263601379C0B33E9B0C5BEA253

McQuinn, Brian (2016): DDR and the Internal Organization of Non-State Armed Groups, in: Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, 5(1): 2–25.

McQuinn, Brian/ Couchesne, Laura (2020): Armed-Group Proliferation: Origins and Consequences, Armed Conflict Survey, 6:1, 14-18, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23740973.2020.1761609?journalCode=tarm20

Megerisi, Tarek (2019): Libya’s Global Civil War, Policy Brief, https://ecfr.eu/publication/libyas_global_civil_war1/

Pack, Jason/ Pusztai, Wolfgang (2020): Turning the Tide: How Turkey Won the War for Tripoli, Policy Paper, Middle East Institute, https://www.mei.edu/sites/default/files/2020-11/Turning%20the%20Tide%20-%20How%20Turkey%20Won%20the%20War%20for%20Tripoli.pdf

Reuters (2020): Factbox: Who's involved in Libya's war and why, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security-intervention-factbox-idUSKBN2351W0

Vandewalle, Dirk (2012): After Qaddafı: The Surprising Success of the New Libya, in: Foreign Affairs, 91 (6), 8–15, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/libya/2012-09-16/after-qaddafi

Wehrey, Frederic (2020): “This War Is Out of Our Hands”: The Internationalization of Libya’s Post-2011 Conflicts From Proxies to Boots on the Ground, https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/09/14/this-war-is-out-of-our-hands-internationalization-of-libya-s-post-2011-conflicts-from-proxies-to-boots-on-ground-pub-82695

 

Brian McQuinn’s Choice for Best Article/Book

Abdul-Ahad, Ghaith (2013): How to Start a Battalion (in Five Easy Lessons), in: London Review of Books, 35 (4), https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n04/ghaith-abdul-ahad/how-to-start-a-battalion-in-five-easy-lessons

Lewis, Janet (2020): How Insurgency Begins: Rebel Group Formation in Uganda and Beyond (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.