Libyan Quagmires and Academic Pilgrims: Media Communication in Closed Regimes

Now that the regime of Col. Moammar Gaddafi, after 42 years of despotic rule internally and fomenting disorder internationally, has seemingly come to a permanent halt, it is a good time for governments -- both in and beyond the NATO alliance -- to review accommodations and agreements made with this regime. It is also time for the academic social policy community to examine its own behavior, especially as the family dictatorship drew to a close and sought ways to assuage democratic nations like the United States and the United Kingdom that the Lion of Libya had become a Middle East Angel of Mercy. This is intended to remind a very small corner of the international relations community of our need to distinguish and separate empirical analysis from political ideology. Social scientists have the same right as any other American citizen or British subject to proclaim and advocate political views. Indeed, the history of specialists, especially in international relations,...(Read Full Article)

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