Libya's Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction

By Mansour O. El-Kikhia

Book Overview

Mansour El-Kikhia provides a readable, comprehensive and objective overview of modern Libyan politics with special attention to Muammar al-Qaddafi and the domestic and regional forces responsible for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813015855
• ISBN13: 9780813015859
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

An Informative Account of Ghadfi's Rule and idiosynchrasies

Mansour El-Kikhia provides a critical and entertaining account of the 'unique' and flawed political system that Ghadafi has instituted in Libya. I found it balanced and very relevant. This system has produced some interesting, if puzzling, results in the course of its implementation that clearly demonstrate its shortcomings and its proclivity to suffer from excessive zeal .El-Kihia shows how Qadhafi has concentrated power to the provinces where the Colonel's extended family members wield important posts in the army and provincial government. The concept of a formal head of state has also been revised in favor of designating an official leader. El-Kikhia also suggests that there has been a concerted effort to diminish the influence of technocrats and educated personnel, who have been instrumental in ceating the institutions to manage the oil economy and important political negotiations with the outside world, in favor of the ideologues of the revolutionary cadres . Certainly this is in accordance with the pattern of power distribution that has prevailed in Libya since the al-Fatah revolution.There are also accounts of the decline of culture and eductaion as a result of Qadhafi's policies and the profusion of ideology in all aspects of daily life.

First Rate Brilliance

As a political science major at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and also a frequent student of Dr. El-Kikhia, having read this book I can say that it is absolutely essential to an understanding of Libya's past and present political course and journey. Dr. El-Kikhia's unique perspective and special knowledge presents both the average reader and political science student with a powerful insight into the core of Quaddafi's world.

Written by one who truly understands the field..

As a student of Professor El-kikhia's Foreign Policy courses, I can address his almost uncanny knowledge and understanding of foreign policy and the Middle East in specific. I would wholeheartedly recommend this and any other of Professor El-Kikhia's books to those who wish to educate themselves in foreign policy in this unique sector of the globe.Ben Herd