Jason Pack is currently based in London. He has worked in Tripoli and Washington promoting commercial and diplomatic relations between the United States and Libya. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, and The Guardian. He is also a frequent commentator on the BBC and Al Jazeera English. He has addressed the House of Commons on the pressing danger Libya’s militias pose to Western interests. He advocates for the Libyan government to jump start infrastructural spending and vocational training programs simultaneously to tackling the security situation, as such an approach will create job opportunities for the former thuwwar (revolutionaries) who are currently destabilizing Libya politics. He also counsels increased Western (and especially American) diplomatic engagement and capacity building assistance in Libya.
Currently a doctoral student at Cambridge University, he holds an M.St. in Global and Imperial history from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University. His doctoral research focuses on the strategic, diplomatic, and institutional factors that shaped the British Military Administration of Libya from 1942 to 1951. He has lived seven years in Middle Eastern countries including: Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Lebanon, Oman, and Syria (where he was a Fulbright Fellow from 2004-5). In 2010, he was Program Manager for a DC-based trade association focused on promoting US-Libya commercial and diplomatic ties. He reads and speaks Arabic and French. He is a world class tournament backgammon player; recently he won the 2013 British Open of Backgammon. His hobbies include tennis, skiing, cricket, and blind wine tasting.
