Dr. Wolfram Lacher

Dr. Wolfram Lacher


Research Division: Middle East and Africa
Senior Associate

wolfram.lacher(at)swp-berlin.org

2018 PhD, political science, Humboldt University, Berlin

2014 Member of the project »Elite Change and New Social Mobilization in the Arab World«

Since 2010 Associate, Middle East and Africa Division, SWP

2007–2010 North Africa Analyst, Control Risks, London

2006 MSc, Violence, Conflict & Development, SOAS, London

2005 Graduate Diploma in Political Science, American University in Cairo (AUC)

2001–2004 Arabic and African Studies in Leipzig and Paris

Areas of Expertise:

Libya, Sahel, Civil wars, Fragile states, Regional and interstate conflicts


SWP Publications (selection):

Wolfram Lacher

The Great Carve-Up

Libya’s Internationalised Conflicts after Tripoli

SWP Comment 2020/C 25, June 2020, 4 Pages

doi:10.18449/2020C25

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Wolfram Lacher

International Schemes, Libyan Realities

Attempts at Appeasing Khalifa Haftar Risk Further Escalating Libya’s Civil War

SWP Comment 2019/C 45, November 2019, 4 Pages

doi:10.18449/2019C45

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Wolfram Lacher

Libya’s Conflicts Enter a Dangerous New Phase

SWP Comment 2019/C 08, February 2019, 4 Pages

doi:10.18449/2019C08

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Muriel Asseburg, Wolfram Lacher, Mareike Transfeld

Mission Impossible?

UN Mediation in Libya, Syria and Yemen

SWP Research Paper 2018/RP 08, October 2018, 60 Pages
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 | 2.8 MB
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Wolfram Lacher

Tripoli’s Militia Cartel

How Ill-Conceived Stabilisation Blocks Political Progress, and Risks Renewed War

SWP Comment 2018/C 20, April 2018, 4 Pages
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 | 153 KB

External Publications (selection):

Wolfram Lacher

Magnates, Media, and Mercenaries

How Libya’s conflicts produce transnational networks straddling Africa and the Middle East

in: Africa and the Middle East: Beyond the Divides - POMEPS, June 2020, pp. 44-49 (online)
Wolfram Lacher

Libya's Fragmentation

Structure and Process in Violent Conflict

London: I.B. Tauris, February 2020.
Wolfram Lacher

Who is Fighting Whom in Tripoli?

How the 2019 Civil War is Transforming Libya’s Military Landscape

in: Small Arms Survey, SANA Briefing Paper, August 2019
Wolfram Lacher, Alaa al-Idrissi

Capital of Militias: Tripoli’s Armed Groups Capture the Libyan State

in: Small Arms Survey, SANA Briefing Paper, June 2018
Wolfram Lacher

Organized Crime and Conflict in the Sahel-Sahara Region

Carnegie Paper, September 2012
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 | 1.6 MB

Working Papers of the Research Division (selection):

Wolfram Lacher

A Most Irregular Army

The Rise of Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan Arab Armed Forces

Working Paper Research Division Middle East and Africa, 2020/02, 32 Pages

doi:10.18449/2020WP12

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 | 1.1 MB

In the Media/ »Point of View« (selection):

Wolfram Lacher, Emadeddin Badi

Agree to Disagree: Libya’s New Unity Government

The new executive authority is unlikely to transcend Libya’s institutional divisions, nor break with well-established patterns of intense factional competition within the government.

in: Sada, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 08.02.2021
Wolfram Lacher

Libya: 'Faces a real risk of partition'

Interview by Marc Perelman, in: France 24, 25.06.2020 (online)
Wolfram Lacher

Drones, Deniability, and Disinformation

Warfare in Libya and the New International Disorder

in: War on the Rocks, 03.03.2020 (online)
Wolfram Lacher, Frederic Wehrey

Libya’s New Civil War – and What the United States Can Do About it

In: Foreign Affairs, 30.05.2019 (online)
Wolfram Lacher

Think Libya's warring factions are only in in for the money? Think again.

in: Washington Post, Monkey Cage Blog, 10 April 2019.

SWP Comments

Intissar Fakir, Isabelle Werenfels
The Pandemic and Governance in the Maghreb: A Moment of Truth

The Covid-19 Pandemic Tests the Sustainability of Different Governance Approaches

Yannik Hüllinghorst, Stephan Roll
German Arms Exports and the Militari­sation of Arab States’ Foreign Policies

SWP Research Papers

Peter Lintl
The Haredim as a Challenge for the Jewish State

The Culture War over Israel’s Identity

Muriel Asseburg
Reconstruction in Syria

Challenges and Policy Options for the EU and its Member States