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.


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

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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 shaping his character and politics. The author explains the impact of Qaddafi's personality and policies, his terrorism, and his foreign adventures on Libya's domestic and international relations by placing Qaddafi's regime in historical context. Beginning with early Greek and Punic influences on the region, El-Kikhia offers a brief history of Libya through the periods of colonization, independence, Arab socialism, and economic growth in order to demonstrate the continuity of Libyan political, economic, social, and foreign policy development from ancient times to the current regime. Born in Libya, El-Kikhia experienced firsthand many of the events he analyzes. He offers a perspective rarely available to American readers, given the difficulty of conducting research in that country. He draws on published literature not only in English but also in French, Italian, German, and Arabic, and his bibliography is one of the most comprehensive available on the subject. His account of the revolutionary state will appeal to students of the region, students of government, policy makers and analysts, journalists, and nonspecialists seeking an informed and accessible source to this little-understood country and its controversial leader.

FROM THE CRITICS

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, University 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. -- Nader Entessar, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

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, University 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. -- Nader Entessar, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

Middle East Quarterly