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Ali Ahmida, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Political Science, recently presented a paper about the Libyan crisis of transition to a United Nations (U.N.) panel.

Ahmida is one of three scholars chosen by the U.N. to work on The Libya Socioeconomic Dialogue Project. The project is designed to provide a platform for a broad and inclusive range of Libyan experts and stakeholders to jointly formulate a long-term future vision for the socioeconomic development of Libya and to devise policy options that would enable Libyan decision-makers to realize that vision.

Ahmida recently presented his paper via Skype to a UN panel meeting in Tunisia and spent two hours listening to comments and answering questions.

His paper had four main objectives: critically examine current approaches and models to understand the Libyan crisis of transition, present alternative rethinking and conceptualization of the crisis, provide a new interpretation of Libyan state -society relations, and develop a short description of the five cases that he plans to investigate to better understand the impact and the reactions of Libyan society to the conflict after 2014.

Ahmida concluded that the challenges in Libya are formidable, but he noted that with the right leadership and international unified support, success in building peace, stability and democratic institutions is possible despite the fact that prospects may appear bleak and remote today.

Ahmida has served as a consultant for the United Nations on several occasions. His previous work includes assessing the U.N.’s role in Arab countries and addressing conflict resolution in Africa for the U.N. Security Council.