Libya's Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction [Paperback]

Mansour Omar El-Kikhia (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Analytical and objective books about contemporary Libya are rare in the West. This is partly due to the paucity of reliable information about the country and partly the result of the difficulty of conducting research there. Libyan-born El-Kikhia (political science, Univ. of Texas, San Antonio) has provided a first-rate objective analysis of the complexities of modern Libyan politics with a special focus on that country's controversial leader, Muammar Qaddafi. Eschewing simplistic treatment, the author explains the internal and external forces that have influenced Qaddafi's thought process and decisionmaking. The role of the revolutionary committees in interpreting and adopting Qaddafi's overall policies are also carefully explained. Overall, this is a thoughtful and well-researched title that should be of value to students of the contemporary Arab world. Journalists and informed nonspecialists who wish to understand Qaddafi's Libya can also benefit from this evenhanded and immensely readable book.?Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, Ala.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The U.S. knows little about Libya beyond encyclopedia articles and air force targeting lists, so this scholarly study might interest larger libraries. El-Kikhia's strength is elucidating the ethnic groupings within Libya's population of four million people, a political fact the outside world's focus on the country's eccentric leader tends to obscure. Beneath the patina of a socialism without a state (all laws were abolished in 1974), Qaddafi rules de facto through his tribal connections, which El-Kikhia clarifies by tracking the fortunes of those who have supported the leader. The author also provides ample detail about the economic strength--oil--that has enabled Qaddafi's various wars and grandiose construction projects. Readers won't find what makes Qaddafi tick (who could definitively say, anyway?), but they will find clear analysis of his philosophy, virtually a museum piece of anticolonial, anti-American, anticapitalist radicalism. An exile, El-Kikhia sympathizes with Libyans who live in the tension of a literally lawless society, but he doesn't allow his view to impair the factual dispassion and informativeness of his study. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Florida (March 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813015855
• ISBN-13: 978-0813015859
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #224,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > History > Africa > Libya

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Rate Brilliance, January 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Libya's Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction (Paperback)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Informative Account of Ghadfi's Rule and idiosynchrasies, November 20, 2001

By 

Alessandro Bruno (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Libya's Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction (Paperback)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Written by one who truly understands the field.., April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Libya's Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction (Paperback)

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