No they wouldn’t Terje; To get investors in you have to offer an environment where that investment is secure. North Korea has about the same security of investment climate as Zimbabwe.

Twaddle. You can do all those things and still be isolated as bad guys. Or you can be praised as being on the right path. It all depends on circumstance. Saudi Arabia is perpetually cast as good guys in spite of being a backward home for terrorist nut jobs. Iran gives women the vote and should be higher up the ladder of nations than Saudi Arabia in the good book but is instead the perpetual bad guy. The reason investors are now going to Libya no doubt has something to do with the fact that Libya is no longer subject to economic sanctions. The funny thing is investors also returned to Iraq once economic sanctions ended. And if we ended economic sanctions against North Korea that country would also be more open. It stands to reason that if you open a window then more wind blows in.

It is quite strange to see this is one thing Bush got right: places like Taliban controlled Afghanistan need regime change.

Somebody decided? On what grounds? I mean, apart from the fact that they are no longer training or supporting terrorists, agreed to hand over the Lockerbie bombers, have opened up their country to investors, joined the international monetary systems and started behaving like a normal country.

I’m intrigued at the change in Gaddafi’s approach to both the management of his country and his relations with the world.

He was once a defiant supporter of anti-west terrorism. It is well known there were PLO training camps operating in Libya, from which terrorists went on missions to hijack planes and ships and plant bombs. He ran his country with an iron fist and thumbed his nose at the free world.

The change began when Ronald Reagan sent in the bombers, narrowly missing Gaddafi but killing a number of key staff and his son. That stopped the overt stuff. Then came Lockerbie and the discovery of direct links with the bombers. It was obvious that even the covert stuff was getting him in the shit, with sanctions and opprobrium galore.

Perhaps it was no more than a young firebrand getting older and realising he really wasn’t achieving much. Perhaps he was worried there would be another Ronald Reagan one day who might not miss next time. I have also read that the invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam was ‘highly motivating’.

Whatever the reason, there has been a remarkable transformation. Libya has opened up to the world and is engaging in a way it was never thought possible. This Wall Street Journal report suggests Gaddafi is even reconsidering his socialist convictions.

I know democracy and political freedom are not yet a reality, but I suspect economic freedom and growing prosperity will hasten demands for these. That seems to be how it works.