St. John offers a reliable account of the major events during the eighteen years of Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi's rule but little more. Rather than pursue his topic chronologically — and in this way show the logic of how events developed — he carves Qaddafi's foreign policy into seven themes. The result is a jumble of familiar events (Libyan attempts at union, confrontation with neighbors, terrorism) that pile on top of each other. St John knows his subject; too bad he did not give it more thought before publishing a book.
This said, he does reach two conclusions that bear remembering when assessing Libya under Qaddafi. First, "the bizarre quality of Libyan foreign policy often derived from its utter certainty and constancy." In other words, Qaddafi is an extremist, not a madman. Second, "innovative but doctrinaire, Qaddafi's foreign policy was also singularly unsuccessful." The ideology has gone ignored and the government has been isolated. This means that however evil he is, in the end Qaddafi poses only a minor menace compared, say, to Hafiz al-Asad of Syria or the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran.
