MEC Editor’s Reader

Welcome to the second edition of the Middle East Channel Editor’s Reader. Each week, I will present my personal selections of the books and articles to read about the Middle East. With Egyptians going to the polls for historic presidential elections, this week’s readings primarily focus on Islamists and electoral politics. How are Islamist parties and movements adapting to their new political horizons? How have they done so in the past — and does this offer any useful lessons for their future? 

My frequently repeated observation to journal publishers: it would be a lot easier and more effective for me to direct attention to your articles if you would liberate them from behind the paywall.

— Marc Lynch, editor, Middle East Channel, May 23, 2012

 Bookshelf

When Victory is Not an Option: Islamist Parties in Arab Politics, by Nathan Brown (Cornell University Press)

Six months ago, in the midst of the Egyptian Parliamentary elections, I joined my George Washington University colleague Nathan Brown for a long interview with Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat el-Shater. Brown began the conversation by pointing to the title of his new book on Islamist political parties in the Arab world: “When Victory is Not an Option.” How would it change the Brotherhood, Brown asked, if it actually became possible for them to win elections and govern rather than simply take advantage of opportunities to campaign and win a limited number of seats? Shater, usually a decisive and confident presence in such conversations, had no real answers. Neither does anyone else.

Almost all of what we think we know about the political behavior, ideologies, and internal organization of Islamist movements in the Arab world derives from evidence rooted in (at best) semi-authoritarian political systems which limited their ability to act on their avowed convictions. Brown’s new book offers one of the best works to date on a (perhaps) passing period of Islamist politics. Through close readings of Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and Palestine — along with frequent reference to other cases such as Morocco — Brown paints a persuasive picture of careful movements adapting to local conditions, hedging against uncertainty, and working within the boundaries presented to them. Brown treats Islamist political movements as political actors, not as ideological monoliths, and effectively dissects the sometimes awkward interaction of their strategy and their ideology. He also offers thought-provoking comparisons between Islamist political movements and European religious parties of the 19th century, with mixed conclusions about the possibility of replicating the latter’s trajectory. When Victory is Not an Option is a masterful book, beautifully written and perfectly timed. Highly recommended.

Reader

“Islam: The Democracy Dilemma,” by Olivier Roy, in The Islamists Are Coming, edited by Robin Wright.

This concise overview of the transforming Islamist landscape by French scholar Oliver Roy is one of the highlights of the excellent new volume edited by Robin Wright. Roy looks beyond electoral outcomes to the deeper social and cultural transformations which Islamists have shaped. Even as Islamists rise in political power, they face great challenges to adapt to changing circumstance. Read this in conjunction with Brown’s book — and all the essays in Wright’s useful volume.

The Lesser of Two Evils: The Salafi Turn to Party Politics in Egypt, by William McCants.

Where Brown’s book focuses on Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamist parties, McCants looks at the fascinating evolution of the Egyptian Salafi movement. Their turn to electoral politics is not as new or novel as many believe, McCants demonstrates, but takes on new significance in the current political environment. McCants does an outstanding job of presenting the key Salafi players and their internal ideological debates, and concludes that the United States and Egypt are likely better served by their being inside the political game than marginalized and alienated.

“America and the Regional Powers in a Transforming Middle East,” by F. Gregory Gause III and Ian Lustick. Middle East Policy.

The Obama administration’s approach to the Arab uprisings has predictably been criticized from all directions — for not intervening aggressively enough, for being too quick to abandon allies such as Mubarak, for supporting counter-revolution, for empowering Islamists. In this new essay, Gregory Gause (University of Vermont) and Ian Lustick (University of Pennsylvania) argue that in fact the United States has proven more nimble and effective than the regional powers of the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran which remain locked in old paradigms. Its relative success, they argue, has come because “the flexibility and nuance of its reactions to the Arab upheavals of 2011 reflect a focus on changes in the region itself rather than calculations in a game with the Soviets or leftover ideological commitments to American hegemony.” They view American policy as driven by a recognition that few truly vital American interests are actually at stake, which gives the administration the luxury to adopt agile, multilateral responses rather than overcommitting to self-defeating policies. This argument by two veteran political scientists is well worth a read, though it remains to be seen whether the analysis will survive the coming year’s policy decisions in Syria and Iran.