ABSTRACT
The revolutionary government first pursued a complex, aggressive, and often
violent foreign policy, notable for the wide-ranging scope of its activities and
interests. This continued into the early 1980s, when a series of setbacks caused
the regime to rethink many of its failed initiatives. The following decade was
a very difficult period in which Libyan foreign policy was hamstrung by the
sanctions imposed by the United Nations. After 1999, Libya sought to return to
full participation in the international community.
