Democracy and Human Rights Policies / Book
Islamist radicalisation: the challenge for euro-mediterranean relations
03/06/2009 By Michael Emerson, Kristina Kausch, Richard Youngs
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Is the EU contributing to the radicalisation of Islamists? Issues relating to political Islam continue to present challenges to European foreign policies in the Middle East and North Africa. In this volume, edited by Michael Emerson (CEPS), Kristina Kausch y Richard Youngs, European and regional experts analyse trends driving the radicalisation of political Islam as well as the contrary trend of de-radicalisation observed in some countries where Islamist parties have secured democratic political participation.
The question underlying the book is whether the EU should engage more specifically with the ‘moderate’ Islamist parties, and at least recognise radical Islamist movements that achieve democratic electoral success and legitimacy, such as the Palestinian Hamas. Current EU policies are largely negative on both accounts.
The conclusions of the book argue for a change in this stance, with a three-dimensional approach : a) to put pressure on incumbent regimes to abandon the repression of moderate Islamist movements, b) to influence the legal and political frameworks regulating social and political participation in a more open way and c) to engage in dialogue with non-violent opposition forces – both Islamist and non-Islamist. In the absence of such policies, the EU risks contributing to a re-radicalisation of movements that have become disillusioned with the failure of their political moderation to produce results.
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Keywords
Algeria Authoritarian regimes Democratisation Egypt EU Foreign Policy European Union Fundamentalism Human rights Islam Jordan Lebanon Middle East and North Africa Morocco Political Reform Syria TunisiaRelated publications
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- Europe and the Middle East: in the shadow of septembre 11
- Europe, the US and Middle Eastern democracy
- Freedom of association and civil society in Egypt
- How serious is the EU about supporting democracy and human rights in Morocco?
- Morocco: negotiating change with the Makhzen
- Planting an olive tree: the state of reform in Jordan
- Political change in the Gulf States: beyond Cosmetic Reform?
- Political Islam and European Foreign Policy
- Political Islam: ready for engagement?
- Turkish politics: more democracy and Europe or more Islam?
Bio author: Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson is Associate Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) since 1998, and program director for Wider Europe; he participated in successive projects on the Balkans, Caucasus, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Cyprus, Middle East, conflict resolution, democracy promotion, Europe's strategic security, political Islam and the crisis of multi-culturalism within the EU.
Bio author: Kristina Kausch
Kristina Kausch is a researcher at FRIDE. Her research focuses on European policies in the EU's neighbourhood, in particular in the Southern Mediterranean, democracy, human rights and governance, and political Islam.
Bio author: Richard Youngs
Richard Youngs is Director General of FRIDE. He also lectures at the University of Warwick in the UK. He studied at Cambridge (BA Hons) and Warwick (MA, PhD) universities.
