The Reform of Libya, 6/06

Key Lecture Points:

• After 27 years of no diplomatic relations, the United States announced on May 16, 2006 the ‘normalization’ of relations with Libya. The US also announced its intention to build a new US embassy in Tripoli, and that Libya had been removed from the list of ‘state sponsors of terrorism’. The resumption of diplomatic relations has been heralded by some as a model of diplomatic success in dealing with rogue states, a model that might be replicated in Iran and North Korea. Others suggest that the US might be motivated instead by its need to secure steady oil flows and declining support for the US in the Middle East and North Africa. Still others have expressed concern over Libya’s oppressive government.

• Having endured a brutal, forty-year period of Italian colonial rule, Libya gained its independence in 1951 with assistance from the United Nations. Emir Idris was proclaimed king of the new constitutional monarchy, which he ruled for almost 20 years. In 1969, Colonel Muammar al-Qadaffi staged a coup d’etat with the help of a few other military officers, forcing Idris into exile in Egypt. Under Qadaffi’s rule, Libya embarked upon an anti-Western foreign policy in the 1970s—closing down Western military bases, nationalizing part of the oil industry, proclaiming Libya’s anti-capitalist stance, as well as allying with the Soviet Union for the sake of armaments trade. In 1979, a mob attacked and burned the US Embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, resulting in the severing of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Relations became increasingly hostile throughout the 1980s, culminating in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, which killed 270 people, 189 of whom were Americans. Two Libyans were indicted for the murders in 1991. Over the course of Qadaffi’s rule, the US and the UN imposed an increasing array of economic sanctions against Libya.

• Beginning in 1999, relations between the US and Libya warmed up significantly. Colonel al-Qadaffi handed over the perpetrators of the Pan Am bombing to Scottish police, and in 2002 Libya publicly recognized its complicity in the incident and put up $2.7 billion for compensation for the families of those murdered. In 2003, Libya acknowledged its weapons of mass destruction programs and committed to dismantling them; also in 2003 and a few times since, Libyan officials have reiterated their promise to aid in the War on Terror. These developments have resulted in the recent announcement that the US will resume normal relations with Libya.

For More Information:
• On Libya from the US State Department: www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5425.htm
• On Libyan Foreign Relations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Libya#United_States-Libyan_relations
• On US and UN Sanctions: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/libya/petrol.htm
• On the Current Situation: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4985804.stm

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