He was known to fund terrorist campaigns such as the IRA and had, as yet, undefined links to atrocities such as the Lockerbie bombing. However in the late 1990s, amid growing concern at his development of weapons of mass destruction, attempts were made to bring him back within the international fold, which were seemingly successful despite achieving little change for the people of Libya themselves by way of creating a society more in tune with their aspirations rather than the demands of their leader.

During the Lilac Dawn across the Arab World in the spring of 2011, civil unrest started in Tunisia then spread rapidly to Egypt, seeing the fall of both regimes. Realising that the reign of dictators could be ended by mass popular revolt, this uprising also erupted in Libya, however with initially less clear results. Whilst the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt, after some strong resistance, accepted the inevitable strength of the people's will and went into exile, Muammar al-Gaddafi surrounded by his family cabal, declared that he would rather die than leave Libya, and would be prepared to kill any of his own people who opposed him.