Britain, the United States and the Muslim Brotherhood: Where "east" meets "west"

The fellowship project will examine the historical relationship between the UK, the US and the Muslim Brotherhood between 1928 (the birth of the Brotherhood) and the turn of the twenty-first century. It will also investigate the character and evolution of the Brotherhood's ideology. This project has the potential to transform current academic understandings of the Muslim Brotherhood. A key contention is that encounters with Britain and the United States, the hegemonic imperial and "neo-imperial" powers in the broader Middle East region, proved crucial to the formation and development of the Brotherhood, especially ideologically.

The project will thus offer a fresh perspective on the movement, seeing it as a product of politico-cultural "in-betweenness", which emerged precisely at the points of intersection between "west" and "east". Too often, the question of ideology has been underplayed in the existing literature on the Brotherhood; the worldview of the Brotherhood has usually been described in essentialised fashion, lacking in nuance (as an endogenous outgrowth of the Islamic religion). In recognition of this, this project will seek to provide a vastly more comprehensive understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood - and in particular, its relationship with what it has understood as "the west".

Equally, the project will seek to understand how British and American foreign-policy makers have understood the Brotherhood and the broader phenomenon of political Islam/Islamism. Analysis of this often-neglected relationship can significantly enhance our view of Anglo-American engagement with the Middle East; it also serves as a crucial backdrop to recent developments. In this way, the fellowship will serve as a platform for engagement with a broader, non-academic audience, injecting a historic perspective into modern debates about both the character of the Brotherhood and the question of how western states should respond to its post-"Arab Spring" rise to power. Commentators and practitioners alike have been faced with the challenge of how to construct an appropriate relationship between "the west" and non-violent Islamism. Yet, there has been little consideration of the historical context and experience; this project will seek to historicise precisely that debate.

To these ends, I will utilise a range of research methods during the fellowship. This will include traditional empirical archive-based research, conducted in a comparative, transnational setting, across US, UK, Israeli and Egyptian collections and scholarly networks. At the same time, I will use oral history techniques to interview a range of figures, both from within the Brotherhood and from within the foreign-policy making world. Through such an approach, the fellowship will be used to produce a major new set of works that will have a significant impact in both the academic and non-academic world alike.

The questions raised by the project are of direct relevance to academics, contemporary policy-makers, media commentators and other interested observers of the international arena. Academically, it will lead to a new understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood, which foregrounds the role of ideology and specifically, the importance within that ideology of the Brotherhood's relationship with the "west". At the same time, the project will offer new perspectives on the history of Anglo-American engagement with the broader Middle East, as well as on British and American views of the phenomenon of Islamism.

Beyond the academic world, the events of the "Arab Spring" has brought questions about how to assess and respond to the political strength of Islamism, to the top of the political agenda. Yet too often, debates around these issues are devoid of historical understanding; neither are they seen as merely the latest chapter in a much longer-running story. This project offers the chance to intervene authoritatively within these latter-day discussions. It is for this reason, that one of the key outputs of the fellowship is for a policy-relevant briefing paper, to be produced in conjunction with a centrist think-tank (Policy Exchange). Equally, I will actively seek to discuss the findings of my research with those responsible for making policy, via a set of public lectures both in the UK and internationally (and again, delivered through think-tanks, such as ICSR with whom I am in contact, which have established experience and reputation for informed engagement with the non-academic world).

Clearly, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is a major target audience for the research and with this in mind, I am already in touch with the head of the FCO's Middle East and North Africa Directorate research group, with a view to future collaboration/liaison. Equally, I will be seeking to communicate with all interested parties in the media, political life and the general public.