Neorealism in the Libyan case : Mary-Jane Deeb’s pyramid and going beyond Waltz -

Abstract

This project is concerned with approaches to Libyan foreign policy under Muammar Qaddafi. It first examines Mary-Jane Deeb’s pyramidal model of analysis of Libyan policy during the 1970s and 1980s. It argues that her model, based on Waltzian neorealist principles, explains Qaddafi’s motivations and actions far better than previous attempts to do so. However, her model fails to explain Qaddafi’s policy choices in the decades following the publishing of her book, the 1990s and 2000s. This project argues that her model cannot account for the shift in threats facing the Qaddafi regime due to theoretical limitations. These limitations are based in Kenneth Waltz’s neorealism that largely ignores the internal nature of a state. To attempt to find a better means of analyzing Libyan policy this project entails a presentation of several attempts to modify neorealism to better fit a Third World context.