A Sense of Siege: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West

The title is a 208 page ebook by Graham E. Fuller and Ian 0. Lesser published by Routledge, February 1995. The following are its synopsis and the book review.

Synopsis

"The clash of civilizations" has become a common phrase in discussions of U.S.-Middle East relations. This book explores the nature of the friction between the Muslim world and Western states, looking at legitimate perceptions and grievances on both sides involving historical, political, economic, cultural, psychological, and strategic elements. Arguing that "Islam versus the West" does not represent the arena of the next global ideological struggle, the authors examine specific issues of a bilateral nature that require careful handling to prevent the consolidation of states into opposing blocs. They discuss Islam's efforts to politically enhance the real power of Muslim states and to equalize relations with the West in the strategic arena; the enlarged role of Islam in the internal politics of Muslim countries; and the urgency of political, economic, and social change to break away from traditional authoritarian orders. A central theme of the book is that political Islam threatens the established order in most Muslim countries far more than it threatens the West and that violent confrontation can best be circumvented by integrating Islamist forces into the political process.

First book review

The first book review is by Antony T. Sullivan in Arab Studies Quarterly (Vol. 18, Issue 3). He writes:

Since Samuel P. Huntington initiated discussion in his now famous article, "The Clash of Civilizations?", published in the summer 1994 issue of Foreign Affairs, literature of both the scholarly and polemical variety concerning whether or not Cold War polarities are to be succeeded by a confrontation between the "West" and the world of "Islam" (or an "Islamic-Confucian alliance") has been voluminous. Among the more notable scholarly contributions have been the energetic dissents to Huntington's thesis published in Foreign Affairs in September/October 1993 (including, surprisingly, comments by Fouad Ajami and Jeane J. Kirkpatrick), James Kurth's critique of Huntington's argument in an essay entitled "The Real Clash" which appeared in National Interest in the Fall 1994 number, and Roy P. Mottahedeh's probing analysis of Huntington's thesis in his article, "The clash of Civilizations: An Islamacist's Critique," published in the Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review 2 in 1996. For their part, Graham E. Fuller and Ian O. Lesser, both affiliated with RAND Corporation, have now composed what is easily the most substantial and empirically grounded study of this entire question. A Sense of Siege: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that Huntington's thesis is both conceptually untenable and factually inaccurate. With Fuller focusing primarily on matters relating to the Muslim world and Lesser giving attention mainly to the West's historical and contemporary view of Islam, the co-authors make clear that Huntington's attempt to revive Spenglerian and Toynbeean notions of homogeneous and organically distinct "civilizations" makes even less sense today than it did half a century and more ago. In the fundamental sense, there is today "no 'Islam' and there is no 'West'", the authors maintain (p. 1). Rather, Islam is both in and of the West, as the West is in and of Islam. For demographic, geostrategic and cultural reasons alike, A Sense of Siege warns against efforts to reify either religions or "civilizations," and highlights the variety of political tendencies which exist both in Euro-America and among Muslims in the Middle East, and the former USSR, and South Asia. "Islam as a faith is not on a collision course...

Second book review

The second book review is written by Martin W. Sampson in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 110, No. 4 (Winter, 1995-1996), pp. 660-661. It reads:

The volatility of this topic is evident in Americans' surprise that the Oklahoma City bombing was NOT the work of Middle Easterners. This volume is a thought provoking contribution for students and instructors who ponder whether a struggle between Islam and the West is the next major focus of international politics.

The authors' contribution is twofold. Their systematic consideration of a host of dimensions of this issue underscores how international relations have become different from the geopolitics of an earlier era. The old we/they, neatly wrapped into state loyalties and arrayed as a contest among sovereign states, accentuated state boundary issues. This volume depicts a quite different we/they, in complex ways affected by Muslim migration to Europe and America, nonstate actors, economic relationships, questions of cultural authenticity, weapons proliferation, oil production, and numerous facets of governance in the Muslim world. The volume is a fascinating statement of how international we/they relations in the late twentieth century can be very different from the pattern bequeathed by the cold war.

The second contribution is what the authors say about the notion of a global struggle between Islam and the West. They assess historical outlooks of each side toward the other, dilemmas each poses for the other, and a set of other dimensions, illuminating complexities that are crucial aspects of the topic. Their position is that a broad collision is unlikely. The authors note that Islamism is fueled by dissatisfaction with oppressive, inept governments in the Muslim world, and the concept of holy war is directed primarily at internal reform, Muslin against Muslim rather than Muslim against non-Muslim. They also note that the fault lines of the Muslim world differ markedly in various regions.

The authors' subtheme, that "gross mishandling of political relationships on both sides can intensify the ideological element ... or even lead to a transient ideological consolidation of numerous Muslim states" (p. 163), is provocative. Related concerns include an increasing tendency to use West/Islam as shorthand for North/South; the dangers of repressing Islamist movements in the Muslim world; the important ramifications of the Muslim immigrant experience in the West for intra-Islamic debates; and exploitation by politicians.

The authors cogently argue that Islam per se is not the issue. Islam is conducive to various interpretations, and numerous factors affect cohesion around Islamist leaderships in the Muslim world. The authors are clearly worried about Islamist political forces coming to power as part of massive social revolutions. They also worry that, no matter what kind of governments exist in the region, oil dependency is not disappearing and Middle East states will soon have missiles that can reach European cities.

There are shortcomings. The word "psychological" appears in the chapter title on Muslim outlooks, not the chapter title on Western outlooks. Second, different parts of the discussion construe the extent of the Muslim world in different ways. Much of the discussion pertains directly to the Middle East, home to less than a third of the world's Muslims. The authors offer very insightful comments about Central Asia, the Caucusus, and the Balkans. They occasionally refer to South and Southeast Asia, where the largest Muslim populations are found. That Libyan, Saudi, and Iranian efforts have had modest impact on Indonesia emphasizes the question, largely unexplored, of how and to what extent the vast Muslim populations in Southeast Asia resonate to the Middle East. Extensive attention to the Middle East and its adjacent regions is, however, what most Westerners expect from this topic. The authors' argument may be more persuasive to readers because they have made it on those terms.