Robert Worth: Authoritarian Nostalgia in Libya

CSIS Babel

Podcast Episode by Jon B. Alterman, Natasha Hall, and Danny Sharp

Published November 16, 2021

This week on Babel, Jon talks with Robert Worth, a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine who interviewed Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya's long-standing dictator, in May. They discuss Saif Gaddafi's political ambitions in the upcoming elections, unique aspects of Libya's society and revolution, and the memory of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. Then, Jon, Natasha Hall, and Danny Sharp discuss nostalgia for authoritarianism across the Middle East.

Robert Worth, "Qaddafi's Son Is Alive. And He Wants to Take Libya Back," New York Times Magazine, July 30, 2021.
Robert Worth, A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to ISIS (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016).
Transcript, "Authoritarian Nostalgia in Libya," CSIS, November 16, 2021.

Jon Alterman

Jon B. Alterman

Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy

Natasha Hall

Natasha Hall

Senior Associate (Non-resident), Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department

Daniel Sharp

Danny Sharp

Adjunct Fellow (Non-resident), Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy