The campaign against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi was the first NATO war in North Africa since Algeria's FLN defeated France. NATO claimed that it acted on behalf of the people of Libya to prevent the indiscriminate slaughter of the civilian populace. Yet, Hugh Roberts, one of the most widely respected scholars of North Africa, reveals these justifications to be baseless. Meanwhile, the bombing campaign, combined with civil war, has caused perhaps as many as 25,000 deaths, many more injuries, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands. Hugh Roberts provides an informed and balanced account of Gaddafi's rise to power and decades-long rule, detailing the West's shifting policies, which isolated him, embraced him, and then bombed him. Whose interests were really at stake? What are the prospects for the National Transitional Council? Roberts's study is the first to put the Libyan war into a context that includes Afghanistan, Iraq, and the complex balance of forces in North Africa.