Wars of Ideas

Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. An expert on regional security in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Russian Federation, he has consulted for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency as well as the Departments of Defense and State, and provided assistance on foreign policy and national security issues to a range of governmental agencies and congressional offices. He has been called one of America's leading experts on the Middle East and Iran by CNN.

The ideologies of our adversaries matter. In America’s 20th Century wars against Communism, Nazism and Fascism, America and its allies understood that we had to defeat our foes on the intellectual as well as the physical battlefield. We must do the same today if we are to bring the Global War on Terror to a successful conclusion. Wars of Ideas: Theology, Interpretation and Power in the Muslim World, edited by Ilan Berman, is an important contribution to this effort. It should be read and considered by everyone involved in creating and executing U.S. counter terrorism policy.

• IntroductionChapter 1: The Islamic State, And AfterIlan BermanChapter 2: State and Religion in Central AsiaSvante CornellChapter 3: Morocco’s Answer to Religious ExtremismAhmed AbbadiChapter 4: Understanding Indonesia’s “Third Way” IslamAzyumardi AzraChapter 5: The Emirates and the Struggle Against Islamic ExtremismTheodore KarasikChapter 6: Jordan Navigates the Intellectual BattlefieldShehab Al MakahlehChapter 7: Saudi Arabia: A Post-Salafist Trajectory?Kamran BokhariChapter 8: Learning From AlliesIlan BermanAcknowledgementsContributors