Short description:

An inside account of conflict, collapse and innovative approaches to reconstruction in Libya?s challenging post-2011 landscape.

Long description:

Drawing on her experience as a United Nations mediator and a senior American diplomat, Stephanie T. Williams provides a first-hand examination of post-Qaddafi Libya. Using concrete examples from her experience in the country, Williams analyses the underlying drivers of the Libyan conflict, as well as the motivations of the international actors and the various Libyan protagonists. She bears witness to the horrific effect of General Haftar?s attack on Tripoli in 2019, how it tore apart a UN peace process, and how she worked alongside UN envoy Ghassan Salamé to reassemble some semblance of an international consensus under the Berlin Process and accompanying intra-Libyan tracks: military, economic and political.

Williams recounts her leadership of the UN mediation during the Covid pandemic, adopting new technologies and blending hybrid and physical meetings to produce the October 2020 ceasefire agreement, as well as progress on the economic track and an inclusive political agreement. She also lays out the pernicious effect of new media on peacemaking, and how disinformation and hate speech have exacerbated Libya?s fragmentation. Finally, Williams offers ideas on how to break Libya?s cycle of division and dysfunction to meet the longstanding aspirations of the people to live in peace and dignity.

'Comprehensive, authoritative and persuasive, Williams' eyewitness account offers a front-row seat to dramatic negotiations with predatory politicians and deceitful outside powers. Even Russia's notorious warlord Evgeny Prigozhin gets a cameo. Essential reading to understand why Libya remains divided, with broad lessons for international mediators.'