Islamist Movements and Political Change in the Arab World

This project was conducted in cooperation with the Centro studi di politica internazionale (CesPI) and International IDEA and assessed:
1) the recent evolution of moderate Islamism and its role in the current political transition of the Arab world through the analysis of four prominent cases: the Moroccan Justice and Development Party (PJD), the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Occupied Palestinian Territories;
2) EU and US policies for the promotion of political change in the region, their limits and outcomes and the acknowledgement of the role that the representatives of moderate Islamism play in this process. This analysis was published in two reports: the first assessing EU and US policies towards the Islamist movements in Morocco, Egypt and Lebanon, and the second looking at EU and US policies towards Hamas.

In the framework of the project, which started in 2007, a seminar was held in Rome in cooperation with the Society for International Development-SID.
It came to an end in 2008 with the drafting of a research report then published in the book: Islamist mass movements, external actors and political change in the Arab world. A research report by Centro studi di politica internazionale (CeSPI), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and Istituto affari internazionali (IAI), Stockholm, International IDEA, March 2010, 203 p., ISBN 978-91-85724-80-2.