The Arab Radicals

Defining Arab radicalism as "a movement determined to challenge the Arab status quo, whether inside a particular Arab country or within the Arab regional state system, and to undermine Israeli and American interests in the area," Dawisha argues that the phenomenon reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. By contrast, the period he covers, 1970 to the present, is one of confusion and contradictory impulses. Following an incisive survey of radical movements and states in recent years, Dawisha ends with an analysis of the new radicalism — fundamentalist Islam. He argues that "the tide of militant Islamic fundamentalism reached its peak during the three-year period, February 1979-February 1982" and has since waned. This should serve as an important counterweight to the routine predictions that Islam as a political force is still gaining power.