The Green Book

The Green Book contains the thoughts and political ideas of the late Libyan leader Muammar al-Qadhafi about the organization of human societies, and about the economic and social relations that should govern the interaction between citizens in those societies. Al-Qadhafi (who was killed during the Libyan civil war in 2011) considered Western state models of political organization and citizenship inappropriate to the problems then facing the Arab world. Idiosyncratic, unassimilated and certainly reflective of al-Qadhafi’s tribal background, The Green Book nevertheless projects a sense of political creativity that inspired his actions as a young leader – a creativity that, unfortunately, became fixed and dogmatic as he became increasingly authoritarian. The first part of The Green Book outlines al-Qadhafi’s theory for direct democracy (jamahiriyya), revolving around the authority of the people, renouncing representation or delegation of authority and asserting the need for popular organization at the lower levels of political societies. Part Two advocates an economic revolution that would transform societies of wage earners into companies of partners, applying a political and economic theory of social organization that gives ownership and regulation of production, distribution and exchange to the community as a whole. Part Three describes the social revolution necessary to make jamahiriyya possible, including the need to address the particular challenges faced by men, women and minorities in modern societies. This new edition of a work essential to understanding the philosophy of the man who held Libya in his grip for over four decades is introduced by Diederik J. Vandewalle, Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College and one of the world’s foremost scholars of modern Libya.This new edition replaces the previous one (ISBN: 9780863723025), which has sold widely for over a decade.

Muammar al-Qadhafi’s, commonly known as Colonel Gaddafi, was a Libyan revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977, then as the "Brotherly Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. He was initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, but later came to rule under his own Third International Theory.Diederik J. Vandewalle is Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. His research focuses on the economic and political development of oil economies in North Africa and the Middle East. He is the author of A History of Modern Libya (2012), and has lectured widely in academic and policy settings in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. He was a political advisor to the United Nations on Libya in 2011.