Professor of political science at the University of Tripoli. He received his PhD in political science from Tulane University in the US in 1986. His latest publications include the book The Arab Gender Gap in the Third Millennium (2014) published by the Libyan Women's Forum in Tripoli, and the article “The Libyan Elections: Reality and Prospects”, in the Sabratha University Journal (2019).
The ACRPS weekly seminar hosted Professor of Political Science, Mustafa Abdullah Abu al-Qasim Khushaim as the speaker on Wednesday 20 January 2021. He gave his lecture on the Impact of Foreign Interference on the Democratic Transition in Libya via Zoom, which was streamed across social media platforms.
Khushaim began his lecture by noting that his study seeks mainly to analyze the tumultuous Libyan crisis in the context of the Arab Spring, and to understand the stalled process of democratic transition. His research asks: What are the attitudes of external parties in the Libyan crisis, and what are their declared interests? Does the crisis reflect the existence of a counter-revolution that seeks to install a military regime? Is it possible to measure the impact of foreign intervention in the crisis and the path of democratic transition in Libya? It is assumed that foreign interference has a negative impact on the Libyan crisis, and on the path of democratic transition in Libya. Foreign intervention has accompanied the Libyan crisis since the beginning of the 2011 revolution.
In his lecture, Khushaim analyzed the crisis in Libya, noting that it has several characteristics, the most important of which being its development from a national to a regional and international crisis in a short time. Thus, it is not a crisis between two states, but rather a crisis between two conflicting national parties, supported by regional and global powers, as well as reflecting a continuum of events that are closer to war than to peace (the war on Benghazi, Derna, and then Tripoli). However, the lecturer believes that this crisis did not impede the political development process; Elections were held nationally and locally.
Khushaim also dealt with the levels of foreign intervention in the Libyan crisis, addressing the public opinion trends and the attitudes of political elites in countries politically and militarily involved in the Libyan crisis since 2011. He then proceeded to unpack the positions of the different countries that directly intervened in the Libyan crisis at the international and regional levels, as well as the roles of the United Nations and its various agencies. Finally, he concluded by presenting the impact of foreign interference on the democratic transition process, based on the analysis of the data of the Democracy Index and the Failed States Index.
