Qaddafi’s redemption: Scorned for decades as an erratic, megalomaniacal dictator, Libyan leader Lt. Col Muammar el-Qaddafi has given up his weapons of mass destruction, renounced terrorism, welcomed Western oil companies, vowed to reform his country’s statist economy, and promised to put Libya on a democratic path. But is the bad boy of international politics truly capable of change?

Rebel with a cause: The most—perhaps the only—humble moment of Qaddafi’s life was his birth in 1942, as the only child of a family in the animal-herding Qaddafa tribe of Libya. From his youth, Qaddafi admired then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, an anticolonialist and Palestinian sympathizer. Muammar’s student years were spent organizing fervent protests that got him kicked out of school, and setting up a Libyan chapter of the left-leaning Free Officers movement that would soon catapult him into political power. In 1969, the 27-year-old Qaddafi led a handful of fellow members in a successful coup against the ruling King Idris.

Arab dreams: From his first moment in power, Qaddafi focused much of his attention abroad. A proclaimed believer in Arab nationalism, Qaddafi sought to make himself a power broker in Middle Eastern and African affairs—even hoping to unify the Arab world during consultation with Egypt and Sudan in 1970. His interventionist tendencies often took Libya to the brink of war, occupying parts of Chad from 1973 to 1987 and feuding with Egypt over its growing Israeli ties in 1977. Above, Qaddafi with Nasser in 1969.

Eastern promise: Armed with Nasser’s anticolonial doctrine, Qaddafi also became a fast ally of the Soviet Union, which recognized his revolutionary government just three days after King Idris was overthrown. Qaddafi’s Soviet relationship provided quick access to weapons and diplomatic ties with other nonaligned states, further distancing him from an increasingly skeptical United States. Today, Libya retains a Soviet air, boasting large city squares and massive housing projects. Above, Qaddafi with Soviet leaders in 1976.

Green revolution: Qaddafi’s unusual ideology is most concretely laid out in his Green Book, written in the mid-1970s and found today in several languages, including Russian, Arabic, and English. With it, Qaddafi sought to create a nation of “Green Minds,” believing in Third Universal Theory, or Jamahiriya, an odd mix of Islam and populist democracy. “Countries like the United States, India, China, the Russian Federation are in bad need of this Jamahiriya system,” he advised in 2006.

Personality cult goes a long way: Although Qaddafi never explicitly sought or claimed a title in his new government, he grew a cult of personality that turned him into “the leader” whose name is only cautiously mentioned on the streets. Qaddafi famously rejects electoral democracy, favoring instead what he believes is true democratic governance: a leader of the people, such as himself. In the West, Qaddafi writes, voters “move silently toward the ballot box, like the beads in a rosary, to cast their votes in the same way that they throw rubbish in dustbins.”

Bad company: Qaddafi’s dream of Arab unity brought him into close relations with Syria, Algeria, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), all of which rejected peaceful efforts to negotiate with Israel. During a turbulent 1970s and 1980s, Qaddafi was accused of financing terrorist operations that culminated in the La Belle nightclub bombing in Germany, a popular spot for U.S. soldiers in the region. In 1989, France accused Libya of involvement in bringing down a flight carrying French nationals from Brazzaville, Congo, to N’Djamena, Chad. Above, Qaddafi is seated with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid, and PLO leader Yasir Arafat in 1989.

When Muammar met Ronald: With Qaddafi’s influence and interference growing in the region, the United States became increasingly worried about his regime. U.S. President Ronald Reagan, determined in his conviction that Qaddafi was a “mad dog” of Africa, closed the U.S. Embassy in 1980 and shot down Libyan planes over disputed territory in the Gulf of Sidra. Just 15 days after Reagan bombed the capital, Tripoli, and the city of Benghazi in 1986 in retaliation for the La Belle bombings and new terrorist attacks on Israeli air counters in Rome and Vienna (for which the American president blamed Libya’s leader), Qaddafi responded by throwing a press event on the birthday of Nasser. “Shit, shit on Reagan,” shouted an angry audience at the event.

Revenge on a plane: It was in 1988 that Qaddafi took on his most notorious intervention. On December 21, Pan American Flight 103 went down after an in-air bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. Almost immediately, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Libya, even as Qaddafi denied responsibility, refusing to turn over the suspects indicted in British and U.S. courts. Above, a piece of the explosive device that brought down the plane.

Mandela’s second peace: As Qaddafi refused to hand over Lockerbie suspects to the international community, intervention came from an unexpected source in 1997: South African President Nelson Mandela, whose own African Congress movement received funding from Qaddafi prior to the end of apartheid. Presenting the Libyan strongman with South Africa’s highest honor, the Order of Good Hope medal, during a visit to Tripoli, Mandela used his personal relationship and “track two” diplomacy with the United States and Britain to convince Qaddafi to hand over the suspects.

A country’s acquittal: Negotiations at last broke through, and the Lockerbie subjects were tried in The Hague in 1999 under Scottish law. U.N. sanctions were lifted shortly thereafter, and Qaddafi emerged from international exile, trying desperately to reconstruct relationships in Europe. Above, Qaddafi embraces a Lockerbie suspect after he was acquitted. Another suspect was convicted, and in 2003, Qaddafi promised to pay compensation to the victims’ families to the tune of $10 million a piece, or $2.7 billion in total.

A changed man? Qaddafi, it seemed, had begun a walk to a different tune after accepting responsibility for the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, and the United States seized the opportunity. Secret diplomatic meetings between U.S. and Libyan officials began in early 2003, culminating in the leader’s renouncement of terrorism and all weapons of mass destruction on December 19 of that year.

The explainer: Throughout his rogue years, it has often been Qaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, who has answered to the world for the actions of his sometimes unanswering father. Seif al-Islam is the founder of Qaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, an organization that works against terrorism and facilitated negotiations and release of six Bulgarian medics held in Libya for nine years for allegedly infecting 400 children with HIV. Seif al-Islam told New Yorker writer Andrew Solomon in 2006 that in the 1980s, Libya was “expecting America to attack us anytime—our whole defensive strategy was how to deal with the Americans. We used terrorism and violence because these are the weapons of the weak against the strong. … Now that we have peace with America, there is no need for terrorism, no need for nuclear bombs.”

Out of exile: France has been among the most ready to accept the post-pariah leader of Libya. In 2004, President Jacques Chirac took a controversial trip to the country. Here, Qaddafi shows him the remains of his palace, which was destroyed during the U.S. bombardment in 1986.

Oily rewards: Qaddafi has always been an oil man; one of his first moves in power was to nationalize and renegotiate international contracts to take in a better share of the wealth. Exports hit a roadblock during Qaddafi’s darker days, but when U.S. President George W. Bush began easing sanctions on Libya in April 2004, Libya sent its first shipment to the United States in 20 years. More recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the sector, which accounts for 95 percent of Libya’s exports. Libya’s return to the international stage has increased opportunities for bidding, and the country says it hopes to double production in the next seven years. Seen in 2004, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder helps inaugurate drilling by a German firm in the Libyan desert.

Everyone wants a piece: Current French leader Nicolas Sarkozy eagerly picked up where his predecessor Chirac left off, playing power broker between the European Union and Qaddafi during negotiations that brought the Bulgarian nurses back home in 2007. Sarkozy took the opportunity to sign further agreements with Libya, including a controversial cooperation in nuclear power—just part of a total of $15 billion in contracts. Qaddafi visited Paris, including the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre museum, just days afterward.

In from the cold: Today, Libya is seen as a cooperative player in the war on terror, officially off the United States’ list of sponsors since 2006. Incredibly, the country has also been elected to a seat on the U.N. Security Council for 2008 and 2009. Many hope Qaddafi will see his new role as a different kind of statesman—bringing terrorism to an end and pushing his continent of Africa toward development and progress. Above, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch (L), and Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad Fitouri (R) sign a compensation agreement for U.S. .victims of Libyan attacks in Tripoli on Aug. 14.

Mad dog no more? In front of Qaddafi’s Libyan mansion, a rusted sculpture still reminds the leader of nearly four decades of his perilous, anti-American past. Journalists and visitors still warn that Libya is a difficult and often unfriendly place to visit, where surveillance is the rule rather than the exception. In a speech in Tripoli on Sept. 1, Qaddafi laid out some of his new, capitalist economic ideas—quite a stretch from his Soviet and Green Book days. “When we apply this system [capitalism],” he said, “we will not worry about anything else. But if we do not establish it, it would be dangerous and would leave things in the hands of the ruler.” Only time will tell if Qaddafi is serious.