A city ground to a halt : policymaking in Tripoli and the reality of promises

Abstract

While exploring the city of Tripoli, one would immediately notice that the city is occupied by huge “monuments” of past glory yet modern failures like the International Fair, the Oil Refinery, and the old Souk. The failure of these projects is usually explained either by referring to a “conspiracy” against Tripoli or to the lack of consensus between the city’s main leaders. In the last few years, Tripoli has witnessed the launch of major new projects, and Tripoli Special Economic Zone (TSEZ) is one of these projects that is promising 'Tripolitans' the city’s economic “revival”. In this thesis, I go beyond the conspiracy theory and the consensus argument to identify the real processes and values that are running in the background of both the old and new projects. This research focus on TSEZ, as a specific case study, documenting its journey, identifying its stakeholders, and analyzing its functions. To achieve these goals, relevant politicians, public servants, and TSEZ staff were interviewed in addition to tracking all the official documents related to TSEZ. My journey to understand the way TSEZ is unfolding led me to identify the five main values that I believe are governing policymaking in the city; these values, being it held by almost all the stakeholders, are leading to the underdevelopment, deterioration, and decay of Tripoli as a City.