The Double Edged Sword of Libya

In 1961 Libya found oil and all of a sudden everything switches. This country is not as poor or as miserable as it used to be. So oil literally changes the material reality of Libya by changing the cultural reality, the ideological and the role of Libya in the international system. It allowed Libya to become to gain a certain, I wouldn't call it centrality, but just to show up. But you have this mismatch of political agenda where the government wanted to use oil to pursue a certain international and regional agenda. And so that's where the sanctions come in - they start showing us this.