I interviewed Bernard-Henri Lévy last week for a profile that will appear in the New Statesman soon. He was in London to promote his new book, Public Enemies, co-written with his compatriot, the novelist Michel Houellebecq. (The book was reviewed for the NS by George Walden.)
Public Enemies appeared in French three years ago. BHL’s most recent book to be published in France is La guerre sans l’aimer, a hefty record (and justification) of the role he played in persuading Nicolas Sarkozy to commit French troops to the NATO intervention in Libya – and, indeed, to persuade other NATO leaders to intervene in the first place. Lévy returns to London tomorrow to speak about liberal interventionism and much else besides at the Royal Geographical Society. Tickets are still available here.
In the clip below, taken from an edition of the BBC’s Newsnight broadcast back in March, Lévy debates the merits of the Libyan adventure with Abdel al-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.