It has been an exciting few weeks for George Joffe. As a research fellow Cambridge specialising in the Middle East and North Africa, he has a been one of the most prominent British academics to offer his view on the revolution which is taking place in Libya, and threatening to usurp Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s repressive regime which has remained largely unchallenged since 1969.

I begin by asking him about his perception of the situation in Libya at the moment. Many people in the West were shocked by the speed with which Gaddafi’s regime was thrown into turmoil, how did it happen so fast? Joffe explains that this is largely due to the fact that Libya is primarily desert: "There are only two areas in which intensive residence is possible…to capture one or both is essentially to win a war".

I ask Joffe what he thinks will happen next. "The latest news is that the oil fields in the centre of Libya have been taken over by the rebels too. There are hints that the army units that have gone over to the rebels will try and go westwards to begin to surround Tripoli."

Surely the regime is on its last legs? I question how much longer Gaddafi can cling to power. To my surprise, Joffe seems to think Gaddafi could "probably hold on indefinitely". He does, after all control the central bank. "But the real question isn’t that," Joffe argues, "the real question is the degree to which the regime loses credibility".

Loss of faith in Gaddafi, Joffe postulates, is likely to be the dying blow to the regime, as people "begin to think that maybe it’s going to be rather dangerous because Gaddafi’s eventually going to go, maybe they are scared of the thought of the international court investigating them, of being pariahs after any change that is going to take place does take place".

Joffe seems fairly certain that the revolution will succeed, though he admits "it could be a matter of weeks, it could be a matter of days".

Nonetheless, reports from journalists from the BBC and The Guardian have done nothing to quell my image of an enraged dictator tottering on the brink of insanity. On arriving in Libya, a group of British journalists were taken on a tour by the government forces, designed to illustrate just how in control Gaddafi still was. Unfortunately for the regime, the baffled journalists were taken to Zuwara, a town in rebel control. Is this not a sign of confused leadership? Joffe agrees with me, suggesting that this was surely a "miscalculation" on behalf of the Gaddafi’s forces, who had no accurate notion of the situation on the ground.

Has Gaddafi gone a bit mad? Joffe shakes his head emphatically. "He’s grandiloquent, he’s a meglomaniac, all those things but he’s not mad. He’s quite capable of rational careful and complex calculation. What he is, is somebody who is now enraged that Libyans have rejected his ideal political system, and I think that really is the thing which he finds utterly unforgivable."

So unforgivable in fact that forces loyal to Gaddafi are dismissing the protestors as drunks and drug addicts. They have even accused the rebels at Zuwara of consisting of al-Qaida released from Guantanamo bay, a fact which Joffe dismisses as "just nonsense". He elaborates:

"Let me just say this, those released from Guantanamo Bay were simply stuck in prison. One of them was then beaten to death and the regime claimed he committed suicide."

Are rumours of al-Qaida just a last desperate bid for Western support? The prevalence of Islamism in Libya, Joffe argues, is "vastly over-exaggerated". Our notions of Islamist movements in Libya are "a consequence of the war on terror and…one of the major distortions in western policy towards the region as a whole".

However, Joffe expresses grave concern over the politics which might unfold following Gaddafi’s departure. "I think it’s probably going to be some kind of spontaneous leadership that does emerge and that has enormous dangers."

In spite of these fears, Joffe describes the uprisings and revolutions occurring in the Middle East at the moment as "tremendously important". They represent, he suggests, the most "dramatic" political upheavals our generation has experienced. What is happening, he argues, is inspiring because it demonstrates "the way in which people actually do try to control their own futures".