Muammar al-Gaddafi's Libya was unhinging long before the uprising that began in February 2011. But the internal workings of Gaddafi's regime - and most other aspects of Libyan life - were long hidden to outsiders. What we knew of Libya was gleaned from the pronouncements of a single man, whose motives were difficult to fathom; or from Western policymakers pursuing national and individual interests. In Exit Gaddafi, Ethan Chorin, a long-time Middle East scholar and one of the first American diplomats posted to Libya after the lifting of international sanctions, goes well beyond recent reporting on the Arab Spring to link the Libyan uprising to a flawed reform process, egregious human rights abuses, regional disparities, and inconsistent stories spun by Libya and the West to justify the regime's 'rehabilitation'. Based on extensive interviews with senior officials in Libya and the West, with rebels and loyalists, Exit Gaddafi provides a rare and often startling glimpse into the strategies and machinations that brought Gaddafi in from the cold, while encouraging ordinary Libyans to 'break the barrier of fear'. Chorin offers a compelling argument for why a pluralistic, prosperous Libya is in the long-term interest of the West.