Excerpt: Jason Pack’s “Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder”

“And hell, if General Haftar was going to win, President Trump would happily give him some tips about where to buy vacation properties in Virginia Beach. His steering of the private ‘confidence building’ chit-chat with General Haftar to real estate matters was not actually as ridiculous as it might seem.”

Writer’s note: My new book Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder, which was published with Oxford University Press in February of 2022, sketches the connections linking the rise and fall of neo-populism in the White House and 10 Downing Street with issues such as climate change and tax havens, as well as major geopolitical hotspots like Libya, Ukraine, and Syria. I contend that geostrategic conflict zones such as Ukraine and Libya showcase certain fundamental truths about our new era of geopolitics, which I term “the Enduring Disorder.”

Drawing on multidisciplinary source material, I demonstrate that dysfunction in key economic and strategic nodes like post-Soviet Ukraine and post-Qaddafi Libya has facilitated the rise of neo-populist leaders in the West. My book examines Libya and other hotspots as microcosms to glean the fundamental principles of our new post-post-Cold War era.

Specially for Merion West readers, we present the below portion of the book focused on how the team of former President Donald Trump formulated its policies toward Libya and Ukraine. It explains the concept of the Enduring Disorder and presents a behind the scenes look at the famous phone calls between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and between President Trump and Libyan National Army Leader Khalifa Haftar, both of which took place in 2019. The excerpt comes from the book’s preface “WELCOME TO THE ENDURING DISORDER.”

Today’s international system is like a ship adrift during a pandemic. With the captain lost to the virus—and the most capable and conscientious members of the crew self-isolating in their cabins—the deck is now teeming with contagious megalomaniacs. Rather than collaborate, each thinks he knows how to steer the ship better than the admirals.