Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
An exclusive, on-the-ground look at Libya as it fractures.
Saudi Arabia has institutionalized sectarianism in virtually every aspect of political, social, and economic life.
Dissatisfied with Washington, Riyadh has undertaken an activist strategy for restoring regional order—but its forceful interventions abroad mask a deep domestic malaise.
In the war against the Islamic State, Iraq’s Sunni tribes are all the rage. They are the commanding high ground on the battlefield’s “human terrain.”
Washington needs to collaborate with its Arab allies to address the imminent threat from Islamic State. But it needs to do so while actively discouraging repression and pressing for policies in Arab states that meet the demands of the young generation that started the Arab Spring.
In many respects, the war of narratives underway in Libya is a mirror of the polarization that is underway in the Gulf itself and in the broader Arab world.
Many Arab governments are fueling the very extremism they purport to fight and looking for U.S. cover. Washington should play the long game.
At its core, the fighting in Libya is about two centers of power vying for the mantle of legitimacy in a country devoid of any workable institutions.
With a domestic landscape torn apart by competing claims to power and with interference from regional actors serving to entrench divides, restoring stability in Libya and building a unified security structure will be difficult if not impossible without broad-based political reconciliation.
The contribution of Gulf Arab countries in the fight against the Islamic State should not be overstated and should be caveated with an awareness of the risks and costs—for both the Gulf regimes at home and U.S. interests in the region.
