Conflict, Identity and Reform in the Muslim World

Policymakers and activists in the United States, Europe, and the Muslim world today face a growing challenge of how to prevent disputes now woven into the fabric of Western-Muslim relations from splintering destabilizing political communities. Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World highlights the challenges that escalating identity conflicts within Muslim-majority states pose for both the Muslim world and for the West, an issue that has received scant attention in policy and academic circles. This reader, which includes commissioned essays as well as work previously published or sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), gathers in one place the latest thinking and contending analyses from a talented group of contributors. These international scholar-activists bring diverse normative, analytical, and disciplinary interests to their work. A product of USIP s Muslim World Initiative, this volume embraces that pluralism while identifying points of convergence and difference that together point to innovative ways to improve U.S.-Muslim relations and promote Muslim-world peacebuilding.

Daniel Brumberg is associate professor of Government at Georgetown University and acting director of USIP s Muslim World Initiative in the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, where he focuses on issues of democratization and political reform in the Middle East and wider Islamic world. Dina Shehata is a senior researcher at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. She previously worked as special advisor for the Muslim World Initiative at USIP.