Inside the brotherhood: Explaining the strategic choices of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt and Jordan and the Islamic Movement in Israel

Why do some Islamist movements adopt militancy as a strategy of opposition, while others seek to effect change from within existing political systems through grass-roots education and missionary work or political participation? More broadly, how do Islamist movements choose among available strategies for pursuing their objectives? Through comparative historical case studies of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt and Jordan and the Islamic Movement in Israel, this dissertation suggests that Islamist movements\u27 strategic choices and behavior are best understood as the emergent outcomes of complex organizational decision-making processes rather than as the purposive choices of unitary rational actors, as most extant explanations assume. In contrast to prevailing analyses that emphasize external structural variables, such as the role of regimes (especially authoritarian regimes), in determining Islamist movements\u27 behavior, I draw on insights from organization theory to provide an alternative theoretical framework that takes into account how internal variables—including leadership, factions, and organizational decision-making procedures—shape strategic outcomes. In opposition to the oft-cited (but empirically inaccurate) inclusion-moderation and exclusion-radicalization hypotheses, I argue that it is the interaction of both external environmental and internal organizational variables that determines what strategies Islamist movements choose to adopt at any given point in time. Through close historical examination and process tracing based on extensive interviews with movement leaders, members, observers, and critics, as well as movement publications and statements and secondary sources, I demonstrate a remarkably consistent pattern: external factors, including regime tolerance or repression, but also regional political catalysts (such as wars and political developments in neighboring countries), lead to changes in the political opportunity structures facing Islamist movements; these changes, in turn, lead to rigorous internal debates in which the movements reappraise the strategic options available to them, given the new conditions. The outcomes of these debates—that is, whether movements adopt new strategies or maintain the status quo—are determined by the particular nature of their leadership, internal factional balance, and organizational decision-making processes, which evolve and vary in their influence over time