Libya Moves Back Into Circulation

Let bygones be bygones: In Paris, Qadhafi and Sarkozy reach out to each other at the Elysée.

The Bush administration and human-rights groups report scant progress inside Libya on domestic matters such as freedom of expression and dissent, steps toward democracy, or alleviating economic stagnation. But U.S. firms are returning with contracts to comb the vast, unexplored Libyan interior for oil and gas deposits, handle oil drilling, and improve pipelines and oil storage facilities. After the many years of absence, though, European competitors have an advantage.

Watch list. And Qadhafi remains an unpredictable figure. He has reaffirmed his choice to abandon terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. But his rhetoric sometimes excuses misdeeds of the past, and he clings to a quirky, self-made nationalist ideology, railing earlier this year against the risk of economic colonialism from the West. Both American and European officials assess that he is playing a largely constructive role on Darfur in trying to draw together fractured rebel groups. This fall, he hosted an inconclusive peace conference in his Libyan hometown, Sirte, though he used the occasion to urge the U.S., European, and United Nations diplomats in attendance to stay out of Darfur and let Africans settle the problem. Given the history of Qadhafi-inspired meddling in nearby countries, he still provokes wariness. "We always watch him closely," allows a senior European diplomat.

Washington and Tripoli also say they're collaborating against terrorism. The Libyans count al Qaeda and its offshoots as mutual enemies; Qadhafi crushed an Islamist-influenced uprising in the 1990s. "We're satisfied," a U.S. official says of the information sharing.

But whether the Libyan model can be completed—and raised into an object of emulation for states like Iran, Syria, and North Korea—is still in doubt. By not yet graduating Libya fully from the ranks of rogue states, says Mack of the Middle East Institute, "it seems to me to be a lost opportunity." The diplomatic art of bringing a rogue in from the cold, it appears, remains a work in progress.