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Courses / Modules / HIST2087 Islamism – from the 1980s to the present

Islamism – from the 1980s to the present

When you'll study it
Semester 1
CATS points
30
ECTS points
15
Level
Level 5
Module lead
Hormoz Ebrahimnejad
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

Since the end of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980s, the modern world has witnessed the emergence of Islamist states and powerful Islamist political movements including in West Asia and the Near and Middle East: the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic in Iran, the Islamic Da’wa Party in Iraq, the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt, the Ennahda Party in Tunisia, and the Islamist Justice and Development Party in Turkey. Paradoxically, the rise of Islamism that is best known for its anti (or at least non)-Western characteristics, has been either tolerated or supported by the Western World and the United States in particular both as a discourse borne of Orientalism and as a political convenience during the last stages of the Cold War . In fact Islamist states in the region were considered by the West to constitute a new “security” belt that was to protect the Western interests against the Soviet Union and its successor, the Russian Federation.

Unpredictable developments in Afghanistan and Iran, however, caused costly wars but in exchange provided more opportunities for the USA to consolidate its military presence in the Middle East and Central Asia.