"Saif al-Islam Alqadhafi is currently Chairman of the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity and Development based in Tripoli, Libya. He received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics in 2009. The topic of his thesis was The Role of Civil Society in the Democratization of Global Governance Institutions: From 'Soft Power' to Collective Decision-Making?"
Saif Gaddafi's Ralph Miliband Lecture (Oy Vey, chuckle!)
"On 25 May 2010, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi gave a "Ralph Miliband lecture" at the LSE, named after Ralph Miliband, a Marxist scholar and former LSE lecturer. Gaddafi spoke on the topic of "Libya: Past, Present, and Future."[43] In introducing the speaker, professor David Held told the audience that "I have come to know him very well and I must say I have come to like him a great deal." He continued:
Saif is committed to resolving contentious international and domestic issues through dialogue, debate and peaceful negotiations. ... Within his own country Saif has spearheaded efforts to open with Islamic militants about the nature and form of their struggle in order to find ways of bringing them back into the political process. ... His success was based on the use of the language of "soft power," that is, the language of dialogue. ... Throughout this time I've come to know Saif as someone who looks to democracy, civil society and deep liberal values for the core of his inspiration.[44][45]
Held went on to say that he had many tutorials with Saif and that throughout ongoing dialogue on a range of issues they came to agree on some, and to disagree on much.
On the evening of the lecture, a fight broke out between anti-Gaddafi protesters and pro-Gaddafi supporters. The police were eventually called in to break up the altercation.[46][47] In a comment on 6 March 2011, David Miliband, Ralph Miliband's elder son and a former UK Foreign Secretary, was critical of the LSE's decision to invite Saif al-Islam Gaddafi:
The Ralph Miliband Programme at the LSE was founded by a former student of my dad's ... The idea of Saif Gaddafi giving a lecture under his name is just horrific to him and horrific to the whole family obviously,[48]
There were approximately 30-40 journalists at the event, however reports on the lecture were largely uncritical and did not raise the issues surrounding the LSE engagement with Libya. David Miliband continued his own association with LSE, giving a lecture at LSE on 8 March, two days after the above comments, where he made reference to the school's early history of economic liberalism combined with social justice.[49]
An open letter by Professor John Keane asks Professor David Held to explain further his links with Libya and to reconsider his reactions. Professor Keane raises several questions, such as: Has the LSE Libya affair not done damage to the scholarly credibility of research programs in the area of democracy? [50] Keane's letter was heavily criticised by those who responded to it in the online magazine in which it was published <http://www.opendemocracy.net/john-keane/libya-intellectuals-and-democracy-open-letter-to-professor-david-held>. Many argued that it was vindictive and overblown. An overview of Halliday and Held - who were both contributors to openDemocracy - with respect to the affair and the larger implications for the independence of UK universities was published by its former editor Fred Halliday, David Held, the LSE and the independence of universities.
In October 2011 Held resigned from his post at the LSE in advance of the publication an independent report into the LSE's links with Libya.[51]
David Held issued a personal statement in reaction to the allegations, saying that "in many discussions and meetings I encouraged the development of [Gaddafi's] reform agenda and subsequently sought to support it through research on the North Africa Programme funded by the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation" at the LSE.[52] In October 2011 Held resigned from his post at the LSE,.[51] The Woolf report examined links between the LSE and the Libyan regime. The inquiry report says it was Professor Held, who "first approached Saif about the possibility of funding his centre for Global Governance in December 2008". This was after the dictator's son had been awarded his PhD by the LSE but before the formal graduation ceremony. The gift offered was of £1.5m in tranches of £300,000 over a five-year period. Periodic payments were to be made annually. The report says: "This was not a one-off donation but the founding of a relationship between the school and the donor, which is not unusual. However, bearing in mind the volatility of the Gaddafi regime, the gift involved a substantial risk because of the length of the relationship." A decision was made that the gift would not come from Saif directly but from "private sector sources". This step "became essential to Professor Held's presentation of the gift. Unless the money could be shown as coming to the foundation from private sources it could have been seen as unacceptable money from the Libyan state."Woolf writes: "I come to no conclusions as to whether there was or would have been excessive influence by the donor over the use of the funds from Saif's foundation. However, what has been made plain is that proper structures of governance are needed to protect academic integrity against influence from the interests of private donors." The funding was accepted despite internal protest. Fred Halliday, a distinguished Middle East expert at the LSE before his death, criticised the donation in a letter that described the country's rulers as a "secretive, erratic and corrupt elite". Held was appointed to the board of the Gaddafi foundation on 28 June 2009, a few days after the gift was discussed and accepted by the university's governing body. Held subsequently resigned from the charity on the LSE council's advice.
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