Libya has won a nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Tripoli's victory is the clearest sign of its international rehabilitation and a possible lesson for other so-called rogue states: Returning and respecting international norms can pay real dividends.
Libya has long been considered a pariah state by various U.S. governments. Washington has charged Libya with sponsoring international terrorism: It was alleged to be behind the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco that killed two Americans and the downing two years later of Pan Am flight 103, which claimed 270 lives. Libya also was said to support terror groups around the world. Thus in 1995 and 2000, the U.S. blocked Tripoli's Security Council candidacy.
But in recent years, relations between the two countries have warmed. A settlement over the Lockerbie incident was a critical first step — although the families of victims complain that Libya has paid only $8 million of a promised $10 million to each family, ruefully pointing out that Tripoli stopped payments when the U.S. dropped it from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.