ABSTRACT
With the exception of the enmity toward Iraq during the fin de règne of Saddam Hussein, no other Middle Eastern country suffered such bad relations with the US as Libya from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s. Indeed, relations between the US and Libya were quite inimical, resulting in the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986 and the shooting down of Libyan aircraft over the Libyan coast in 1989. Before 2003, it was hard to imagine the staggering improvement in relations witnessed since. The normalization process in fact began in 1999 following Libya’s decision to hand over to the United Nations its two accused officials in the Lockerbie affair. A combination of important factors engendered the normalization process: effects of the US and UN sanctions on the Jamahiriya, domestic discontent with the regime’s political and economic policies, the emergence of jihadist groups in Libya, Libya’s isolation regionally and internationally, effective secret diplomacy, sanctions’ fatigue, fears of retaliation from the US following the 9/11 attacks on US soil, lobbying in the US Congress from major American petroleum companies, the decision to definitively resolve the Lockerbie affair, Libya’s decision to forsake terrorism, and Libya’s decision in December 2003 to abandon its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs. The objective of this chapter is to provide an analysis of the factors enumerated above that have led to the normalization of US–Libyan relations, characterized hitherto by mutual hatred for three decades. However, a review of US–Libyan relations is necessary to grasp not only the enmity between the two countries, but also the recent changes that have opened the door to normal, friendly relations that might change the regional order.
