This is part of the MENA Politics Newsletter, Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2020.
Islamist movements have been deeply involved in a wide range of civil wars over the last decade. How, if at all, has their involvement differed from the role played by non-Islamist groups? How has their participation in these wars changed these movements, whether in terms of strategy, ideology, organization or external alliances? Do different types of Islamists – Sunnis and Shi’ite, Muslim Brotherhood organizations and salafi-jihadists, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State – engage differently with wartime conditions? In an earlier contribution to this Newsletter, I laid out the case for the rigorous study of Islamist participation in war.[i] This special section presents a number of the papers presented at the January 2019 Project on Middle East Political Science workshop.
The contributors to the workshop were asked to approach the question of Islamist participation in wars through the lens of their own research focus. Steven Brooke, drawing on his research on the social services provided by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, asks whether the mechanisms by which Islamists gained political advantage in stable authoritarian contexts also operate in war zones.[ii] Elizabeth Nugent draws on her research on the impact of state repression on Islamist radicalization and moderation to consider how warzones might impact their ideology and behavior.[iii] Nicholas Lotito, in his contribution, uses conflict data to demonstrate differences in how effectively Islamists fight compared with non-Islamist counterparts. Khalil al-Anani asks whether prison conditions are conducive to rethinking Islamist ideology and strategy. Morten Valbjørn and Jeroen Gunning, in their contribution, carefully examine the logic and theoretical framing for understanding the operation of such mechanisms, especially those related to identity.
These short essays help to frame an important new research programme with questions and puzzles which cut across disciplinary and methodological orientations.
Marc Lynch, The Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, marclynchgwu@gmail.com
[i] Marc Lynch, “Is There An Islamist Advantage At War?” APSA MENA Politics Newsletter 2(1), available at https://apsamena.org/2019/04/16/is-there-an-islamist-advantage-at-war/
[ii] Steven Brooke, Winning Hearts and Votes: Social Services and the Islamist Political Advantage. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018.
[iii] Elizabeth R. Nugent, After Repression: How Polarization Derails Democratic Transitions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020.