Political Islam Movements and International Relations: The Concept and The Practice

Abstract

This study examines and analyzes the development of the relations between the Political Islam movements, on the one hand, and the foreign or regional and international environments, with the west in particular, on the other hand. In another words, it examines the concept and the practice of the Political Islam Movements and International Relations. It puts the movements' and the environments' visions, agendas and policies since the 1940s up till now into perspective. The paper deals with many aspects such as, challenges to the efficiency of the Political Islam movements in the international arena, the attributes of the Political Islam, and the theoretical approach to International relation incorporated into the political Islam movements' framework. This paper is confined to the study of the contemporary Political Islam movements, specifically the Sunni Arab one. This movement is mainly represented by the Muslim Brotherhood and its different partisan forms across the Arab world. It is also represented by those movements which dissented and severed any relations they once had with the Brotherhood despite the similar vision they share.