Political Islam Inside-Out

This book analyses the evolution of key Islamist movements and parties in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. It offers a novel and exhaustive study of the evolution of Islamists as shaped by the interplay of domestic, regional, and international factors.

Providing an in-depth, theoretically grounded and empirically rich study of political Islam, the volume explores how the overly under-appreciated interaction of domestic, regional and international factors impacts the development of contemporary Islamist actors. By tracing how they adapt and resist to challenging environments within and beyond national boundaries, it charts and explains many of the critical changes and continuities in their organisational set-up, policy choices, ideological leanings, and narratives. Through an inside-out perspective and actor-centered approach, this book aims to overcome the ‘compartmentalisation’ of the domestic and international spheres as well as the ‘obsession’ with moderation for Islamists. Specifically, the book chapters address how Islamist actors (re)interpret external events, norms, ideas, and practices from abroad in the light of the constraints and opportunities of their respective domestic environments. At the crossroads of comparative politics, international relations and area studies, it is a key resource for practitioners and scholars interested in party politics, social movements, political Islam and North Africa.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Contemporary Politics.

Giulia Cimini is Junior Assistant Professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna and a Gerda Henkel Research Fellow. Her research focuses on Maghrebi political parties, dynamics of contention, and security assistance. Her latest works have appeared in the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Contemporary Politics, and The Journal of North African Studies.

Beatriz Tomé-Alonso is Lecturer in International Relations at the National Distance Education University (UNED) and Associate Research Fellow at the GRESAM (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha). Her research focuses on Islamist movements in the Maghreb, especially Morocco, and the interlink between international, regional and domestic arenas. She has published in The Journal of North African Studies, Contemporary Politics and International Studies Perspectives among others.