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 POST-QADHAFI WAR ECONOMY –

These five articles diagnose and explain the central features of Libya’s unique economic system of indirect rentierism which provides incentives for the ongoing Wars of Post-Qadhafi Succession:

Tim Eaton
‘Libya: Rich in Oil, Leaking Fuel’, Chatham House Long-read, 2019
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Jason Pack
“It’s the Economy Stupid: How Libya’s Civil War Is Rooted in Its Economic Structures,” IAI (Rome), IAI Papers 19, 17 September 19
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Tim Eaton
“Libya’s War Economy: Predation, Profiteering and State Weakness, Research Paper”, (Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2018)
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Jason Pack
“The UN Deliberately (Albeit Mistakenly) Accorded Sovereignty to Post-Qadhafi Libya’s Economic Institutions,” Middle East Institute, September 26, 2019
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Mohsin Khan and Karim Mezran
“The Libyan Economy after the Revolution: Still No Clear Vision”, in Atlantic Council Issue Briefs, 28 August 2013
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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:

Jason Pack
“Libya’s Liquidity Crunch and the Dinar’s Demise: Psychological and Macroeconomic Dimensions of the Current Crisis”, Libya Herald, Special Report, April 2017
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This paper proposes solutions and prescribes a role for international governments, the private sector, and Libyan reformers:

Jason Pack
“An International Financial Commission is Libya’s Last Hope,” Middle East Institute, Policy Paper 2020-1, January 2020
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These two pieces look at high profile international lawsuits and arbitrations:

Deena Dajani
“Libya’s Sovereign Wealth Scandal: Taxpayers’ Billions Squandered Through Nepotism, Incompetence and Wild Gambling”, The New Arab, 30 November 2017
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Menas Associates
“Libya’s Commercial Arbitration Winning Streak,” Jun 10, 2018
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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:

Jason Pack
“Engagement in Libya was and remains the right answer,” The Spectator, Jan 31, 2013
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– THE OIL AND GAS ECONOMY –

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

Hassan S Hassan and Christopher Kendall
History and Future of the Petroleum Industry in Libya, SEPM Strata, 2008
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These three works provide the technical and historical background on the foundations and evolution of the Libyan oil sector:

J. Gurney
Libya: The Political Economy of Oil (Oxford, 1996)
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Frank C. Waddams
The Libyan Oil Industry (London: Croom Helm, 1980)
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Paul Barker
“The Development of Libyan Industry,” in ‘Libya since Independence: Economic and Political Development’, edited by John Anthony Allan (London: Croom Helm, 1982)
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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:

Dirk Vandewalle (ed.)
Libya since 1969, Qadhafi’s Revolution Revisited (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
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An extremely useful reference work about Libya law, statistics, and figures:

Otman, Waniss, Karlberg, Erling
The Libyan Economy Economic Diversification and International Repositioning (Springer, 2007)
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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:

Michael E. Porter
Libyan Economic Development Board Blueprint, Monitor Company Group, 2007
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– 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:

Ronald Bruce St John
Libya and the United States: Two Centuries of Strife (Philadelphia, 2002)
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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:

Dirk Vandewalle
‘Libya since Independence: Oil and State Building’ London, I.B. Tauris, 1998
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G. Joffé and K. MacLachlan (ed.)
Social & Economic Development of Libya (Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, 1982)
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