Publication

This brief argues that excluding Islamists from democratic processes in the Middle East and North Africa will endanger the processes' legitimacy and sustainability. It also (and familiarly) argues that the region’s states must re-examine their socio-economic structures, broaden their existing levels of political participation, and implement comprehensive transitional justice programs that help legitimize new governments. In the last case, for example, establishing an effective judicial system and fielding effective reconciliation programs could rob radicals of their justifications for violence.