TIMES ONLINE: Buried away on the dusty shelves of a London library is a student’s vision for a new world order.
Doctoral dissertations are usually of little interest outside the world of academic research but this book casts an intriguing light on the beliefs of one of the Middle East’s most influential figures.
The publication by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the eldest son of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his second wife, is set to fuel the debate about the pace of democratic and economic reform in his homeland.
Perhaps because it is published under the surname Alqadhafi, the blue cover of the PhD thesis appears to have been little read since it was filed at the Senate House library of the University of London last autumn. Over 428 pages, the man seen as heir apparent to the socialist dictator who has ruled Libya for 40 years calls for democracy and greater influence for business in his vision of the world’s governing institutions.
Dr Gaddafi has become an increasingly powerful voice in the oil-rich country, which has influence in both the Muslim world and the African Union. Although dismissed by critics as a playboy prince for his frequent international travel and attendance at celebrity parties, Dr Gaddafi spent four years researching his thesis at the London School of Economics.
While other doctoral students struggled to survive with occasional lecturing, the multimillionaire Libyan was also negotiating the release of the Lockerbie bomber and $1.5billion compensation for his victims, opening up his country’s oil and gas fields to international businesses and restoring diplomatic links with the US.
Dr Gaddafi, 37, introduces his work by writing: “I shall be primarily concerned with what I argue is the central failing of the current system of global governance in the new global environment: that it is highly undemocratic.”
The comments will be read with interest in Libya, where his father has ruled since a military coup in 1969 and where opponents are still ruthlessly suppressed. Dr Gaddafi says that his dissertation “analyses the problem of how to create more just and democratic global governing institutions”, focusing on the importance of the role of “civil society”. >>> David Brown | Wednesday, September 16, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: When it comes to carrying out original research, few PhD students have access to one of the world’s most prestigious corporate consultancies, with advisers including the former head of the Secret Intelligence Service.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi used Monitor Group to carry out a survey and interviews with the leaders of non-governmental organisations to provide the empirical data for his thesis at the London School of Economics.
Senior advisers at Monitor Group include Sir Richard Dearlove, who was recruited in 2005, the year after he retired as head of MI6. Sir Richard was well known to the Libyans because Colonel Gaddafi had chosen British intelligence as the go-between when he decided to surrender his country’s nuclear programme.
The company also employs Sir Mark Allen, another former MI6 agent and a senior adviser to BP. Sir Mark lobbied Jack Straw just before the Justice Secretary abandoned efforts to exclude the Lockerbie bomber from a prisoner transfer deal. Mr Gaddafi hired the company in 2004… >>> David Brown | Wednesday, September 16, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan dictator, used a firm that employs the former head of British intelligence to carry out research for his doctoral thesis.
Mr Gaddafi used Monitor Group to interview the heads of non-government organisations for a paper that argued the "central failing" of current global institutions was that the set-up was "highly undemocratic.
The 37-year-old is seen as a potential heir to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who has been dictator of Libya for 40 years. Monitor Group employs both Sir Richard Dearlove, head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) at the time of the Iraq war and Sir Mark Allen, the intelligence agent who brought Col Gaddafi's regime in from the cold.
Mr Gaddafi spent four years researching his thesis at the London School of Economics and his PhD thesis was filed at the Senate House library of the University of London last autumn. The paper runs to 428 pages and calls for democracy and greater influence for business* in multi-national affairs. >>> Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Wednesday, September 16, 2009
*What sort of nonsense is this? It is precisely because business has had far too much influence in multi-national affairs that we have just experienced the fiasco of the craven British government caving in to Libya over the release of Megrahi. If we are going to have a world in which corporations wield too much power, then we are going to have a sick world to live in! Go back to the LSE, Dr Gaddafi, you've got some learning to do! – Mark
