Seeking Gaddafi: Libya, the West and the Arab Spring

An orphan child of Empire, shaped by the colonial legacy of Italian rule, a testbed for Marxist thought, a vanguard nation in the struggle against the West and a nursery for Islamic radicalism, it was a state sponsor of terror and a pariah power. But Libya is also an oil producer fuelling contemporary capitalism, a crossroads nation which champions both Arab and African interests, a society in which women play a much more prominent role than in other developing nations, and a pragmatic ally of the West in combating al-Qaeda.

And the complexities of Libya’s position go further still. While it has abandoned its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, it supports the genocidal regimes of Sudan and Zimbabwe; while it seeks to combat Islamist terrorism, its role in the Lockerbie bombing is a crime for which no proper reckoning has been made; and while it seeks to live with the realities of modern liberal economics, it also persists as a brutal tyranny which operates by the rules of clan loyalty rather than attempting to move towards anything resembling democracy.

The man at the heart of all these contradictions is Libya’s enigmatic ruler – the great survivor of Arab nationalism, Muammar Gaddafi. Seeking the truth about Gaddafi is, like following tracks in the shifting sands of the Sahara, no easy task. But my colleague Daniel Kawczynski has brought his characteristic tenacity, passion and energy to the task. The result is a fascinating portrait of a land and its leader, with illuminating detail on every page and telling insights culled from Daniel’s own work on international development and human rights.