Ignored amid the feverish speculation over Japan's next prime minister and the rumored illness of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was a development of real significance: the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Libya. Her stopover marks the highest-ranking U.S. visit there in over half a century. Just as important, it could begin a new era in U.S.-Libya relations and signals what is possible when "rogue states" make the strategic decision to respect international norms.

Relations between the United States and Libya have been troubled since 1972, when the American ambassador was withdrawn after Mr. Moammar Gadhafi, the country's supreme leader, tore up agreements with the U.S. and made Washington his public whipping boy. The sacking of the U.S. Embassy in 1979 prompted Washington to cut relations. A war of words continued with Mr. Gadhafi delighting in blaming the U.S. for all the world's ills, a charge that was reciprocated. Relations worsened in 1986 when then U.S. President Ronald Reagan accused Libya of ordering the bombing of a German discotheque that killed three people. After dismissing Mr. Gadhafi as "the mad dog of the Middle East," the U.S. bombed targets in Tripoli and Benghazi. Three years later, Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, claiming 270 victims. A lengthy investigation identified the culprit as a Libyan intelligence official, who was found guilty of murder.

Negotiations that led to the handover of the official — aided by international economic sanctions against Libya — and the eventual $2.7 billion settlement with the families of the Pan Am victims opened the door to wider normalization talks. That process was helped along by the discovery that Libya was actively pursuing the development of weapons of mass destruction. Seizure of a shipment of parts for those programs gave Tripoli ample reason to come clean about those efforts, a move that helped break the A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling ring.