The French public intellectual universally known as BHL this year transcended his role as merely a flamboyant member of the commentariat, moving from rhetorical bomb-thrower to unlikely inspiration for an actual bombing campaign. In March, Bernard-Henri Lévy made his way into Libya, hitching a ride on a vegetable truck to meet with the nascent revolutionary leadership in the country's rebellious east. As Muammar al-Qaddafi's tanks closed in on the rebels' de facto capital, Lévy telephoned his friend, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, to warn him that "the blood of the people of Benghazi will stain the flag of France" if the world did nothing.
At Lévy's urging, Sarkozy swung into action. France became the first country to recognize the rebels as Libya's legitimate government and led the way in pressing NATO to launch an air campaign against the erratic dictator. Lévy's muscular humanitarianism -- he hailed the Libya war as a step toward "a moral conscience for mankind" -- seems to herald an end to the role of sideline critic that the French played during George W. Bush's military campaigns. In acting as a quasi-official French emissary to the rebels, Lévy effectively bypassed France's actual foreign minister, Alain Juppé, who was reportedly sidelined on the issue. Although BHL's antics still inspire their fair share of eye-rolling, he has never shied away from taking a stand -- as when he mounted a furious defense this year of his friend, then-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who stood accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid but later had the charges dropped. As 2011 proved, BHL -- love him or hate him -- is impossible to ignore.
ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP/Getty Images
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