NCUSLR Webinar: Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder

On 14 November at 11:00 EST (16:00 GMT), the National Council on U.S. Libya Relations (NCUSLR) hosted a webinar to mark the first anniversary of Jason Pack's (Founder & Director) book Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder. Jason was joined by:

• Amb. (ret.) Deborah K, Jones, U.S. Ambassador to Libya 2013-15, who discussed from an American perspective the current state of world affairs and Pack’s thesis, based on her experience as American Ambassador to Libya.

• Amb. Ibrahim Dabbashi, former Deputy and Permanent Representative of Libya to the UN (who called on Gaddafi to resign in February 2011) and Presidential candidate, who spoke from a Libyan perspective, based on his experience as a seasoned diplomat and politician.

• Arthur Snell (Project Lead, Climate Change & Geopolitics), British businessman and former diplomat who spoke about lessons from Libya for other regions based on his own experience in several crisis areas.

You can watch the full webinar below:

The NCUSLR reported on the webinar in a newsletter, summarising:

At the beginning of this webinar [03:00], Jason criticized the lack of coherent collective action of the International Community and called Libya a ‘Microcosm’ for understanding international developments and collective action failures. For Jason, this country presents a natural case study for explaining the new constellation of geopolitical dynamics which he terms the Enduring disorder.

Arthur Snell [20:35] named the British foreign policy over Libya ‘very reactive’. He tied this in part to the fact that there was no British Ambassador on the ground for most of the time. According to him, the UK has currently "completely dysfunctional" foreign policy structures. Therefore it is extremely reluctant to engage in risky or ambitious foreign policy objectives.

Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi [38:15], who led in February 2011 the Libya's UN mission in opposing the continued rule of Muammar Gaddafi and is now a Presidential candidate explained that there are three main factors as root causes of all the negative developments: no one was able to replace the strong man; there was no competent and charismatic leader filling the vacuum left by Gaddafi; the concession at the GNC to form the constituent assembly on the basis of the equal representation of the three historic regions (20 - 20 - 20), as this brought the seed of division into Libya; the inclusion of the militias on the government’s payroll, which led to numerous parallel security forces. He concluded, Libyans should advance their own interests.

Former US Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones [48:25] explained the ‘marching orders’ she received before moving to Tripoli after Ambassador Stevens was murdered and how the coordination between the P3+1 worked. She highlighted the significance of social media, stating that the Ambassador has to absolutely control the ‘Twitter messages’ and not the staff.

Thereafter there was a quite lively discussion, answering several questions from the audience, including about the situation on Libya's southern border.