Resources

The AmCham Libya Guide to Navigating the Mysteries of the Libyan Economy

With Jason Pack

A list of books, articles and Web resources about the Libyan economy, the oil industry, and U.S.-Libyan commercial relations — curated by consultant, author, commentator and AmCham Libya Board Member, Jason Pack.

The first comprehensive general audience report about the implications of Libya’s post-Qadhafi subsidies, currency black market, smuggling, public sector salaries, and larger macroeconomic implications:

This paper proposes solutions and prescribes a role for international governments, the private sector, and Libyan reformers:

These two pieces look at high profile international lawsuits and arbitrations:

This article puts forth the case that the West was right both geostrategically and commercially to pursue engagement with Qadhafi, and also then to support the rebels, but the West’s error in the post-Qadhafi period has been a lack of follow-through and sustained engagement:

– THE OIL AND GAS ECONOMY –

An excellent overview of the Libyan pipeline grid, and the upgrades it needs to join the 21^st century:

These three works provide the technical and historical background on the foundations and evolution of the Libyan oil sector:

THE DEFINITIVE ACADEMIC WORKS ABOUT THE ATTEMPTED ECONOMIC REFORMS OF THE LATE POST-QADHAFI PERIOD ARE:

This article takes a poli-econ approach to explore how the Qadhafi regime actually functioned in practice and (mis)managed the economic reform processes by avoiding corresponding political reforms:

An extremely useful reference work about Libya law, statistics, and figures:

The neo-liberal blueprint that was dreamed up to reform Qadhafian statism by Western consultants and then either not implemented or subverted, but still underlies much about reformist visions of the Libyan economy:

– THE QADHAFI PERIOD ECONOMY AND US/LIBYA RELATIONS BACKGROUND READING –

This is the only book that investigates America’s unique relationship with Libya from the late 18th century to present:

These two works examine how oil wealth and the needs of the oil sector combined with Qadhafian ideology to give rise to Libya’s unique state structures and indirect rentierism: