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| Volume IX, September 2002, Number 3 |
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| EXCERPT: New Era in American-Libyan Relations |
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| Ronald Bruce St John |
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Dr. St John is the author of more than three dozen books and articles on Libya and serves on the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Libyan Studies. His latest book is Libya and the United States: Two Centuries of Strife (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).
America's diplomatic and
commercial intercourse with
Libya is one of the oldest such
relationships in the history of the United States. Concerned with the threat posed by Mediterranean privateers, the U.S. Congress as early as 1784 had dispatched to Europe the famous trio of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, as ministers plenipotentiary with the mission to negotiate as many commercial treaties as possible with European and Mediterranean powers, including agreements with the Barbary states. This early diplomatic mission ended in failure, and Libya and the United States enjoyed full, productive and engaged relations for a mere two decades in the ensuing centuries. Elements of the current American-Libyan dialogue, while highlighting the growing ambiguity of the Bush administration's war on terrorism, offer the real prospect of a new era in bilateral relations.
U.S. SUPPORT FOR QADHAFI
Following the overthrow of the Libyan monarchy on September 1, 1969, Muammar al-Qadhafi began to articulate an increasingly comprehensive ideology with strong Libyan antecedents but also enjoying similarities with the ideologies of other Arab revolutionary movements. He skillfully combined nationalism, anti-imperialism and pan-Islamic loyalty, political currents that had emerged in Libya at the beginning of the twentieth century, with more contemporary movements for Arab nationalism, Arab socialism and Arab unity.1
Arab nationalism was the core element of Qadhafi's ideology, and the concept of jihad was the action element of that Arab nationalism. Qadhafi viewed jihad as a means to achieve social justice both inside and outside Libya. His revisionist approach to this traditional concept led the Libyan leader to support an eclectic mix of liberation movements from the African National Congress to the Irish Republican Army to Muslim separatist movements in the Philippines. That said, the Libyan concept of jihad found its most pragmatic expression in early support for a variety of Palestinian groups. Palestine being an integral part of the Arab nation, Qadhafi believed the latter could never be truly free and united until Palestine was completely liberated.
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| 1 For an introduction to the ideology of the Libyan revolution see Ronald Bruce St John, "The Ideology of Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: Theory and Practice," International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 15, No. 4, November 1983, pp. 471-90.
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