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  "authors": [
    "Frederic Wehrey"
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    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
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Source: Getty

In The Media

Libya’s Power Vacuum Draws ISIS Closer to Europe

The brutal murder of Egyptian Christians in Libya by the Islamic State has brought the ongoing chaos in Libya to the forefront.

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By Frederic Wehrey
Published on Feb 19, 2015
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The Middle East Program in Washington combines in-depth regional knowledge with incisive comparative analysis to provide deeply informed recommendations. With expertise in the Gulf, North Africa, Iran, and Israel/Palestine, we examine crosscutting themes of political, economic, and social change in both English and Arabic.

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Source: KCRW’s To the Point

The brutal murder of Egyptian Christians in Libya by the Islamic State has brought the ongoing chaos in Libya to the forefront. Speaking on KCRW’s To the Point, Carnegie’s Frederic Wehrey explained how the Islamic State has exploited the vacuum created by the civil war in order to gain a foothold in the country.

General Khalifa Hifter is a polarizing figure who is fighting with one faction, Operation Dignity. Wehrey said that many fear that General Hifter wants to bring back the “deep state” in Libya. “But he’s selling something that’s very appealing and that’s a return to stability, a return to security,” Wehrey added. He explained that the problem is the way Hifter is trying to bring stability back, through labeling all Islamist opposition as terrorists, which could further polarize and destabilize Libya.

Wehrey concluded that while there are extremist Islamist militias in the east, militias are not necessarily ideological and instead fight “for their town, for their tribe, for their particular region.” Labeling those militias as terrorist can be dangerous as some subscribe to democracy and the constitution, he warned.

This interview was originally aired on KCRW’s To the Point.

About the Author

Frederic Wehrey

Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Frederic Wehrey is a senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where his research focuses on governance, conflict, and security in Libya, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf.

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Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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