The Libyan Banking Sector: A Microcosm of Global Enduring Disorder

We no longer inhabit the post-Cold War era. There is no global hegemon unifying its allies to adopt consensus positions on issues of shared interest like climate change, tax havens, or the reconstruction of post-conflict states. This era of Global Enduring Disorder makes it particularly difficult for wealthy, geostrategically important post-conflict states to transition to stable governance as myriad external and internal conflict actors pull them in a range of directions, making real reform or peacebuilding nearly impossible. This leads to a situation where post-conflict states (such as the post-Arab Spring states) have inherited their dysfunctional economic institutions from the prior regimes without meaningful hegemonic supervision. Furthermore, a core feature of this new era is the rapid spread of media narratives stigmatizing various institutions or elites for participation in “conspiratorial” activities. Conspiracy theories and wars to control the narrative are not new. However, the ability of non-experts to spread their opinions and the sheer amounts of misinformation constitute a quantitively and qualitatively new phenomenon…

Jason Pack & Stefano Marcuzzi for MEI.