The Conference will be given by Jason Pack, a researcher at the University of Cambridge and president of Libya-Analysis.com. Jesús Núñez Villaverde, co-director of the Institute of Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action (IECAH), will be commenting the talk. The event will be presented by Karim Hauser, who is responsible for the Governance Area at Casa Árabe.

The internal conflict in Libya is now part of a much broader crisis emerging in the Middle East, in which international and regional role-players have not hesitated to intervene. Various factors are important to understand what is taking place: the geographic location of porous borders, vast energy resources, the recent history of the country’s fragmentation and, of course, the dynamics in the regional balance of power and its re-alignment.

The immediate cause of the most recent incidents has been a major dispute between Islamists and nationalists over the legislative elections which led to the creation of a new Libyan Parliament last June. The new House of Representatives was intended to replace the interim assembly, known as the General National Congress, or GNC, elected in 2012. The Islamists considered to be moderate obtained poor results, and therefore they reject the legitimacy of the new body and continue to support the GNC. In the meantime, GNC members are especially opposed to the creation of a new body to improve security in Libya through foreign intervention, despite the fact that some 350 militias have replaced the army and national police in their roles. Given this difficult context, how can a state with weak institutions and an incipient civil society be rebuilt? What road map can be designed to unblock the Libyan transition?

Jason Pack is a researcher of Middle Eastern History at Cambridge University, the president of Libya-Analysis.com and the publisher of the book The 2011 Libyan Uprisings and the Struggle for the Post-Qadhafi Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). He completed his Master’s degree in Global and Imperial History at Oxford University. His opinion articles have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Spectator, The Guardian and Foreign Policy.  He has advised NATO and several of its Member States on the creation of unified multilateral policies towards Libya, focused on mediation between the different parties concerned in Libya and on consolidating security, governance and the economic sector.

Jesús Núñez Villaverde is a co-director of the Institute of Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action (IECAH). A specialist in security-related topics, the building of peace and conflict prevention, with a special emphasis on the Arab and Muslim world. He frequently collaborates with various media. He is a professor at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). A consultant of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the field of peace building and the prevention of violent conflicts.

Conference information sheet