Aftandilian in The Arab Weekly on Trump’s Libya Policy
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed on United States President Donald Trump’s Libya policy.
Aftandilian’s Op-Ed, entitled “Trump Content to Leave Libya Policy to France,” was published in The Arab Weekly on June 10, 2018.
From the text of the article:
There was a time, not long ago, when a US president was criticised by his detractors in the United States for “leading from behind” when it came to US policy towards Libya.
That was in 2011 when then President Barack Obama was content on having US allies in NATO, including France, take the lead in confronting the Qaddafi regime after Libya’s “Arab spring.” Because of Washington’s prominent role in NATO, the United States was not absent from the Europeans’ Libya policy; nevertheless, Obama was keen to show that the United States did not always have to be out in front when it came to the Middle East and that other countries should take up the burden.
For taking this back-seat approach, Obama was castigated by Republicans in Congress, as well as conservative media commentators for supposedly abandoning US leadership.
French President Emmanuel Macron has now taken the lead by hosting a conference of Libya’s major political leaders and factions, who agreed to have elections this year, though they failed to sign a document to that effect. The French have collaborated closely with UN special envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, and are considered the key outside player trying to settle the Libyan imbroglio, even though France was not Libya’s past colonial power.
So where is Washington in this matter and why are so many Republican supporters of President Donald Trump silent on this assertive French leadership? After all, the Islamic State (ISIS) is still active in Libya and Trump vowed to eradicate this terrorist organisation so it would not pose a threat to the US homeland. Trump did host Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in the White House in 2017, so why is he seemingly content at passing the baton over Libya policy to others?
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).