Libya’s implosion: The cascading effects of the 2012 killings in Benghazi

On the evening of September 11, 2012, members of the Ansar al-Sharia Islamist militia attacked the United States special mission in Benghazi, Libya, bringing about the deaths of both the US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and his colleague Sean Smith. In Benghazi! Ethan Chorin – a former US diplomat in Libya who has more recently been employed by the Emirati government – attempts to use this tragedy as a device to guide the reader through the web of deceptions at the core of the past twenty years of political upheaval in Libya. The short version of Chorin’s analysis of why the Western détente with Gaddafi (2003–2010) failed, and why the democratic potential of the Arab Spring was itself then unable to bring forth its initial promise in the country, is: “Blame it all on the Islamists/Jihadis and those Westerners, Libyans and members of the Gulf states who engaged with them”…

Jason Pack (Founder, Director) for TLS.