The EU’s ‘Irini’ Libya mission: Europe’s Operation Cassandra
Europe’s latest move seems likely to marginalise it and damage its credibility as an honest broker
Experts & Staff
Tarek Megerisi
Senior Policy Fellow
Areas of expertise
Libya, North Africa, Euro-Med cooperation, stabilisation, and democratisation
Languages
English, Arabic
Biography
Tarek Megerisi is a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. His work mainly addresses how European policymaking towards the Maghreb and Mediterranean regions can become more strategic, harmonious, and incisive – with a long-term focus on Libya.
For more than a decade, Megerisi has worked with various regional, European, and multilateral authorities on providing reform and stabilisation assistance to transitional states in the Middle East and North Africa. He has been involved in a range of projects, including post-conflict stabilisation, development and democratisation, Libya’s domestic and international political processes, economic reform in Tunisia, and the eastern Mediterranean disputes. His articles have featured in publications such as Foreign Policy magazine and the Guardian newspaper, and he has contributed to think-tank programming across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa.
Why the ‘ignored war’ in Libya will come to haunt a blinkered west
Europe seems unconcerned by the chaos smouldering on its doorstep, as Libya’s five-year-old conflict becomes world’s main theatre of drone combat
Infected: The impact of the coronavirus on the Middle East and north Africa
The coronavirus has hit the Middle East and north Africa at a time when the region is already burdened with multiple problems, including a series…
Make-believe in the Med: Europe’s new Libya mission
Without aerial power, the ‘new Operation Sophia’ will simply upset Turkey and encourage the UAE and Haftar to go for total victory in Tripoli
The Berlin Libya Conference: a moment to shine for European foreign policy?
Anthony Dworkin stands in for our usual host, Mark Leonard, to de-brief the Berlin Conference on Libya. Together with the ECFR’s experts Asli Aydıntaşbaş, Tarek…
Views from the capitals: The Libya conference in Berlin
ECFR’s national offices explore whether the conference marks a fresh beginning for Europe’s engagement with war-torn Libya
How to repair Europe’s credibility in Libya
European countries and the EU can still use the strength of their diplomatic assets to reassert their influence in Libya. But they will first need to overcome their internal divisions to do so.
Turkey in Libya: Filling the European vacuum
Europeans could still keep Libya a multilateral affair, if they can bring France onto a shared platform – and deploy newfound unity to draw American influence back in
Mapping European leverage in the MENA region
Turmoil in the Middle East and north Africa directly affects Europeans. Yet their influence in the region has never been weaker. This project maps Europe’s role across the Middle East and north Africa, making the case that Europeans can do more to leverage their influence in pursuit of core interests
Germany’s quiet leadership on the Libyan war
Although Germany’s mediation role in the Libyan conflict has received relatively little attention so far, this might change if its initiative leads to a peace conference – or, alternatively, a collapse of the political process
Publications
Road to nowhere: Why Europe’s border externalisation is a dead end
Europeans need to stop handing control of their borders to southern Mediterranean states. Instead, they should pursue measures that tie the short-term imperative to reduce irregular migration to longer-term strategies that lessen the need for people to migrate in the first place
Autumn of the patriarch: How to help Tunisians defend their democracy
Tunisia’s autocratic president is leading the country to the brink. The EU and member states should act now to support Tunisian democracy.
Back from the brink: A better way for Europe to support Tunisia’s democratic transition
The EU and its member states can assist Tunisian leaders by providing new investment – and thereby reboot the democratic transition
Spoiler alert: How Europe can save diplomacy in Libya
Europeans should provide stabilisation, technical, and diplomatic support to strengthen Libya’s governance and accountability mechanisms to ensure a new government can successfully hold elections in 2021
Libya’s global civil war
Introduction The Libyan National Army’s (LNA) recent advance on Tripoli, under the leadership of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, has pushed Libya into what could become…
Order from chaos: Stabilising Libya the local way
The tragedy of Libya in well known in outline but poorly known in detail – to many in Europe, that is. But Europe has a role in the country’s stabilisation.
Articles
A cautionary tale: Why the UK’s Rwanda bill is doomed for political failure
Finally passed into law, the UK’s bill to process migrants in Rwanda has been a political disaster. European governments should remember that not only does such a policy not work to deter migration, it will politically damage any party that adopts it
The politics of catastrophe: Morocco, Libya, and how Europeans should respond
The disasters that have struck Morocco and Libya in recent days demand an urgent response. Europeans have an imperative to act – but should bear in mind the political complexities underlying the provision of aid
Infinity war: Libya’s reoccurring conflict
Libya is trapped in a degenerative cycle of war. Yet Europeans could use the current stalemate in the country to restart an electoral process that would end the cycle.
Never let a good crisis go to waste: How Europe can respond to Libya’s riots
European policymakers should look on current protests in Libya as a rare opportunity to push for change in what has long been a stagnant political environment
The man from Misrata: Why Libya has two prime ministers (again)
If Libya is to avoid the same political dynamics that sparked its long-running civil war, European states that are invested in Libyan diplomacy will need to focus on establishing a new electoral road map
Unsettled: The impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on the Middle East and North Africa
Heightened conflict in Ukraine could have serious consequences for European interests in the Middle East and North Africa. It could further disrupt energy supplies, exacerbate food insecurity, and help states in the region gain leverage over the US and Europe.
Tunisia coup: What Europeans can do to save North Africa’s only democracy
Europeans cannot stand apart from the chaos in Tunisia – indeed, active European involvement now can help restore stability to the country
The great game: A geopolitical Euros
If policymakers watch closely enough, football might just provide the perspective and insights they need to advance a geopolitical Europe
Cooling-off: How Europe can help stabilise the Middle East
As countries across the Middle East pause to take stock of recent conflicts, Europeans need to do more to support dialogue
Plot twist: How Europe should deal with Libya’s new government
Europe should support the UN process in Libya by working to ensure that the country’s upstart new government focuses on preparing for and holding the general election in December
Specials
Deep sea rivals: Europe, Turkey, and new eastern Mediterranean conflict lines
The eastern Mediterranean is becoming ever more perilous as geopolitical fault lines steadily enmesh the region. These rifts emerge from the Cyprus ‘frozen conflict’, competition for valuable gas fields, and the increasingly entangled wars in Libya and Syria.
Mapping European leverage in the MENA region
Turmoil in the Middle East and north Africa directly affects Europeans. Yet their influence in the region has never been weaker. This project maps Europe’s role across the Middle East and north Africa, making the case that Europeans can do more to leverage their influence in pursuit of core interests
Podcasts
Russia’s Syria, Turkey’s Libya?
The attempt of a peace process in Libya is facing several substantial hindrances, where a variety of actors keep on inducing significant upheavals in its…
The Berlin Libya Conference: a moment to shine for European foreign policy?
Anthony Dworkin stands in for our usual host, Mark Leonard, to de-brief the Berlin Conference on Libya. Together with the ECFR’s experts Asli Aydıntaşbaş, Tarek…
Quelle issue pour la situation en Libye ?
Podcast de notre BCM du 5 mai « Quelle issue pour la situation en Libye ? » en présence de Tarek Megerisi, chercheur…
Is Libya falling apart again?
Mark Leonard speaks with Julien Barnes-Dacey and Tarek Megerisi about the Libyan conflict, the impact of the Paris summit, and Europe’s fight over migration policies…
In the media
It effectively just serves to give them control, as they’re able to threaten Europe with a wave of migrants whenever they want to extract more money, or other political concessions from them
Tarek Megerisi on debunking the case for externalisation aid
Libya is a hugely profitable area for Wagner
Tarek Megerisi on Wagner’s operations in Libya
I think that he thinks his charges are believable [for his audience]. They fall in line with his claim that he’s trying to restore the pride of the state
Tarek Megerisi on Saied’s crackdown on political dissent
Already with Tunisia, now with Israel and Palestine, von der Leyen pursued personal, and ideological, politics without a mandate
Tarek Megerisi comments the critics moved towards von der Leyen for mining UE’s coherence in the international arena
Tarek Megerisi comments on Libya’s leadership and its management of the flood