Libya: The Struggle for Survival [Hardcover]

Geoff Simons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1993 | ISBN-10: 031208997X | ISBN-13: 978-0312089979

This book charts in detail the West's response, particularly that of the US, to Libya's possible involvement in the bombing of the Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in 1988. It suggests that this response cannot be fully understood without consideration of the United States as sole military superpower in the New World Order. Geoff Simons argues that the US decision to target Libya, and to involve the UN in this policy, has more to do with the realpolitik objectives of a hegemonic power than with the disinterested use of international law to combat terrorism. The Lockerbie issue is set against a detailed history of Libya from the earliest times to the present, with emphasis on Libya's colonial past, the pivotal significance of Libya's oil resources, the character of the Gaddafi revolution, and the consequent impact on relations with the United States.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this prodigiously researched book, veteran British journalist Simons sets out to produce three distinct works: an investigative essay on Libyan involvement in the Lockerbie explosion, a descriptive sketch of modern Libya, and an analytical survey of Libyan foreign relations, especially those with the United States. He seeks to portray American policies of disinformation, economic sanctions, and the 1986 bombing raid from a perspective sympathetic to Gaddafi. Holding that "the most important factors of modern Libya are oil and Gaddafi," Simon says that the United States has pursued an interventionist foreign policy toward Libya in order to gain access to that oil by ousting Gaddafi. In the Lockerbie matter, Simons argues that the United States sought to blame Libya to the exclusion of other involved Middle Eastern parties in order to isolate Gaddafi even further from the international community. This perspective stands in stark contrast to Brian L. Davis's Qaddafi, Terrorism, and the Origins of the U.S. Attack on Libya (Praeger, 1990) and John Davis's Libyan Politics: Tribe and Revolution (Univ. of California Pr., 1988). While not totally convincing in its general argument, the book is fascinating in its amassed detail and belongs in all large public and academic libraries.
- James Rhodes, Luther Coll., Decorah, Ia.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'Geoff Simons has performed a service to the English-speaking world by writing the first, serious and comprehensive assessment of the late-twentieth-century Libya available in the English language.' - Tam Dalyell, MP

'A work of great authority and importance. Geoff Simons wipes away the web of Western camouflage, hypocrisy and deceit to discover the utterly disreputable truth.' - Harold Pinter

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (April 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031208997X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312089979
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,702,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > History > Africa > Libya

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.