Libya

The occupy movement has achieved an incredible and much-needed shake-up of a long-standing political stasis in the US and elsewhere, but it is crucial now to highlight the connection between failed foreign policy, bloated military spending and illegal wars, and the economic crisis at home.

The Libyan people face major challenges in deepening democracy in a country that is oil rich, deeply divided and dependant on NATO for its victory against Gadhafi.

The success of Libya's uprising will have a great deal to do with the willingness of its leadership to break its dependency on the United States and NATO.

Events in Libya and Syria have again brought the legitimacy of armed humanitarian intervention and so-called “responsibility to protect” into question.

Angry citizens want their nations’ money back and rightfully so. Banks should be curbed instead of allowed to enthusiastically facilitate the illicit outflow of money by dictators.

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Audio Files: 

Podcast: International responses to the Arab Spring

Middle East scholars join TNI fellows in a unique and fascinating discussion of the context of the democracy uprisings in the Middle East and the way it may shape the region for future generations.

A recent comparison by top foreign policy thinkers in the US reveals the not so pro-democratic thinking that also goes on in Washington, referring to the emancipatory movements of the Arab Spring as a improbable "worst-case scenarios."

Phase one of the Arab spring is over. Phase two – the attempt to crush or contain genuine popular movements – has begun.

The continuing expansion of NATO's intervention in Libya has less to do with oil as in Iraq and is more a reactive response to the wider uprising across the Middle East which threatens US / Western hegemony.

Bombing Tripoli while shoring up other despots in the Arab world shows the UN-backed strikes to oust Gaddafi are purely cynical.