In January, Heritage Senior Research Fellow Jim Phillips predicted that Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution would spark uprisings throughout the Arab world. Four months later, North Africa and the Middle East are experiencing substantial governmental transformations, and there is no end in sight. Tunisia As the first leadership casualty of the “Arab …
The Obama Administration’s explanations for why the U.S. intervened in Libya reveal a common, disconcerting theme: a reliance upon the relatively new idea of a “responsibility to protect” (R2P). In a letter to Congress, President Obama announced that Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi “has forfeited his responsibility to protect his own …
Wednesday’s defection of Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is a major embarrassment for Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi and a sign of lagging morale in the top echelons of his regime. Koussa was not just the foreign minister, which is often just a mouthpiece position in Arab dictatorships; more importantly, he …
Libya’s seat at the United Nations is currently vacant. Weeks ago, Muammar Qadhafi fired his U.N. ambassador Mohammed Shalgham after the ambassador denounced the Libyan strongman as a tyrant. In his stead, Qadhafi named another veteran and loyal diplomat, Ali Treki. The U.S. has apparently denied Treki a visa to …
Last night, nine days after U.S. military operations against Muammar Qadhafi began, President Barack Obama took to the stage at the National Defense University to finally explain his rationale for intervention in Libya’s civil war. He described the brutality of the Qadhafi regime, the United States’ interests in the conflict, …
Tonight, the president gave a long series of remarks that might have been appropriate last week when the administration kicked-off Operation Odyssey Dawn—explaining why US forces directly intervened in the Libyan civil war. Yet the questions asked at the outset of the intervention were still left largely unanswered. That airpower could …
The Daily Caller reports: “Some Democratic advocates are already touting President Barack Obama’s Libyan intervention as a success, but others, including Democratic foreign-policy gurus, worry that a continued stand-off will damage the president’s polls and wreck efforts to boost the role of transnational organizations, such as the United Nations.” It …
