Martyn Frampton

The Long March examines the recent history and evolving political strategy of Sinn Fin, from the effective birth of the party in 1981 down to the recent Irish General Election.

The Political Strategy of Sinn Fein, 1981-2007

The Long March

The Muslim Brotherhood and the West is the first comprehensive history of the relationship between the world’s largest Islamist movement and the Western powers that have dominated the Middle East for the past century: Britain and the United States. In the decades since the Brotherhood emerged in Egypt in the 1920s, the movement’s notion of “the West” has remained central to its worldview and a key driver of its behavior. From its founding, the Brotherhood stood opposed to the British Empire and Western cultural influence more broadly. As British power gave way to American, the Brotherhood’s leaders, committed to a vision of more authentic Islamic societies, oscillated between anxiety or paranoia about the West and the need to engage with it. Western officials, for their part, struggled to understand the Brotherhood, unsure whether to shun the movement as one of dangerous “fanatics” or to embrace it as a moderate and inevitable part of the region’s political scene. Too often, diplomats failed to view the movement on its own terms, preferring to impose their own external agendas and obsessions. Martyn Frampton reveals the history of this complex and charged relationship down to the eve of the Arab Spring. Drawing on extensive archival research in London and Washington and the Brotherhood’s writings in Arabic and English, he provides the most authoritative assessment to date of a relationship that is both vital in itself and crucial to navigating one of the world’s most turbulent regions.

A History of Enmity and Engagement

The Muslim Brotherhood and the West

John Bew

Inigo Gurruchaga

The peace agreement in Northern Ireland has been held up as a beacon for conflict resolution around the world. The lessons of Ulster have been applied by prime ministers, presidents, diplomats and intelligence agents to many areas of violent conflict, from Spain to Sri Lanka, from Afghanistan to Iraq and, frequently, the Israel-Palestine crisis. From Belfast to Basra, the notion that it is necessary to engage in dialogue with one's enemies has been fetishised across the political spectrum. Talking to terrorists is a necessary pre-requisite to peace, it is argued, and governments should avoid rigid pre-conditions in their attempt to bring in the extremes. But does this understanding really reflect what happened in Northern Ireland? Moreover, does it apply to other areas where democratic governments face threats from terrorist organisations, such as in the Basque region of northern Spain? In challenging this notion, the authors offer an analytical history of the transition from war to peace in Northern Ireland, and compare the violent conflict in the Basque country over the same period, demonstrating how events there have developed very differently than the advocates of 'the Northern Ireland model' might presume. The authors recognise that governments have often talked to terrorists and will continue to do so in the future. But they argue that what really matters is not the act of talking to terrorists itself but a range of other variables including the role of state actors, intelligence agencies, hard power and the wider democratic process. Above all, there is a crucial difference between talking to terrorists who believe that their strategy is succeeding and those who have been made to realise that their aims are unattainable by violence.

Making Peace in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country

Talking to Terrorists

Drawing on the Muslim Brotherhood's Arabic and English writings and on archival research in London and Washington, Martyn Frampton provides the first comprehensive history of the charged relationship between the world's largest Islamist movement and the Western powers that have dominated the Middle East for a century: Britain and the United States.

Simon Sebag Montefiore

Monsters presents, in chronological order, grimly fascinating profiles of 101 notorious and profoundly sinister individuals whose actions have one thing in common - they have had a baleful and blood-soaked impact on the annals of world history. From Attila the Hun to Basil the Bulgar Slayer, from Pedro the Cruel to Ivan the Terrible, and from Richard III to Saddam Hussein, Monsters is a devilishly compelling gallery of history's greatest ghouls.

History's Most Evil Men and Women

Monsters

This is the first book to examine the history of dissident Irish republicanism as it has developed over the last two decades. It does so by putting dissident republicanism in historical context and then exploring its evolution - particularly against the background of the Northern Irish peace process and Good Friday Agreement. The book shows why the flame of militant, violent Irish republicanism still burns by taking an in-depth look at the thinking that inspires those who adhere to its ideology. To this end, the author has conducted interviews with members from the political wings of several leading dissident groups.

Martyn Frampton

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