On 6 April, Foreign Policy published an article entitled ‘Why Isn’t the US in Libya?’ by Frederic Wehrey, a senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In his article, Wehrey examines the lack of a ‘sustained and meaningful’ US presence in Libya over the past decade, criticising the US’ ‘distance from and disinterest in’ the country, with US officials prioritising what they consider as more pressing issues in the Middle East. He argues that US diplomats operating from neighbouring Tunisia are ‘unable to build trust with, understand, and possibly influence key Libyan players’. In contrast, he says, Russia seems to ‘enjoy a spoiling influence’ in the country. He also criticises the ‘current fixation on a Libyan-led process’ toward elections, referring to the ‘ambitious roadmap’ put forward by UN Special Envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily, which he says is ‘fraught with pitfalls, lacking in details, and seems destined to repeat the mistakes of the past’. He further doubts the ‘unrealistic expectations’ that US policymakers have about ‘what voting by itself will accomplish’. Wehrey concludes by arguing in favour of reopening the US embassy in Libya, ‘while avoiding quick-fix solutions and grounding US policy in local Libyan realities’.
Read the full article here.