Scientific coordinator: Virginie Collombier – EUI/Middle East Directions

Who are the influential local actors in Libya today? What role can they play in conflict-resolution and the shaping of a new political and security order? 

“Everything is local in Libya”. “Local actors have a key role to play to ensure a sustainable solution to the ongoing conflict”. The workshop aimed to analyze and refine these assumptions.

More precisely, the Workshop wanted to give an answer to a set of simple but essential questions: Who are the local actors and who can speak in the name of local communities in Libya? How can we define Libya’s “civil society” – which members does it include/exclude? How do local actors interact with the different (regional, national international) levels of powers? What are the resources and means available to these actors? To what extent are they involved in and can they influence the current socio-political dynamics? What role can be played by the international community to support them? What are the risks of empowering or manipulating some of the “wrong” actors?

Speakers:

• Nasreen Amer (Benghazi)
• Musab El Gaed (Tripoli)
• Mustafa Fetouri (Paris/Tripoli)
• Patrick Hamzaideh (Paris)
• Mohamed Mlitan (Misrata)
• Omeyya Seddik (Tunis)
• Sifao Tuwao (Yefren)

Discussants:

• Virginie Collombier (EUI/Middle East Directions, Florence)
• Hamza Meddeb (EUI/Middle East Directions, Tunisi)

For the full programme of the event, click here: “Libya, Which Role for Local Actors”