Libya – African Battleground of the World’s Powers: On the Publication of M.F. Vidyasova’s Book, “Libya. Where Does a Country of 140 Tribes Go?”

The article reviews M.F. Vidyasova’s book “Libya. Where Does a Country of 140 Tribes Go?”, published in 2019. For many years the author of the book has been studying the economic, social, and political development of North African countries, including Libya. This book, argues the author of the article, as well as other scholarly works by Vidyasova, is marked by its high scientific level and academic style. In her analysis of the monograph the author of the article touches upon major issues of M.F. Vidyasova’s study, first of all, the influence of foreign powers on Lybia’s economic, social, and political development in the 20th – 21st centuries. M.F. Vidyasova’s analysis of external factors which led the country to a long-lasting post-revolutionary crisis is assessed as having a special scientific value. It is concluded that M.F. Vidyasova’s book embraces a wider range of issues than most research done by other Russian scholars. These issues include oil trade, the competition among foreign countries for the influence over the internal situation in Libya, the international aid to the post-revolutionary Lybia, and Russia’s participation in solving the acute problem which Libya has been recently facing. The author also notes the significance of M.F. Vidyasova’s addressing the policies of EU countries toward Libya which are determined by their interests in the area of oil trade and African population’s migration to Europe.