‘The Internationalism of Islam’: The British Perception of a Muslim Menace, 1840–1951
Abstract This article assesses British perceptions of a Muslim menace to imperial security between 1840–1951. These ideas had a long life. They rarely stood in the first rank of imperial concerns, but sometimes in the second. Over this period, British ideas of an Islamic menace focused first on the political self-consciousness of all Muslims than on subterranean bodies which tried to bind masses and elites for political ends, and moved to nationalist movements with a narrow popular base, and finally to those with a mass base. Between 1915 and 1924, fear of a pan-Islamic menace significantly affected British strategic and imperial policy. These ideas involved the interaction of observation, intelligence, perception, learning, fear, ignorance and uncertainty. Their study illuminates the evolution both of British intelligence and of its ideas about the political self-consciousness of its subjects, and the threat that posed to its rule, particularly about the nature and power of colonial nationalism.
Les Frères musulmans au prisme des renseignements britanniques pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale
Cet article se propose d’etudier comment les autorites britanniques, leurs services de renseignements et leurs diplomates abordent la montee en puissance des Freres musulmans sur la scene politique egyptienne pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Objets d’une etroite surveillance, les Freres sont percus comme des elements subversifs, dont il s’agit d’evaluer la menace posee aux interets britanniques et de prevenir l’expansion. Renforce par le contexte de guerre, ce prisme securitaire conduit certains agents de l’ambassade et des services secrets au Caire a tenter d’encadrer le succes des Freres. Oscillant entre interets pragmatiques et antagonismes culturels, les repertoires d’actions et d’analyses mis en œuvre eclairent les reticences des diplomaties occidentales vis-a-vis des acteurs islamistes.
Achievements and contradictions of the Peruvian agrarian reform
Different paths of transition to capitalist agriculture, as well as different types of agrarian reform, can be distinguished. The Peruvian agrarian reform is analysed within this context and evaluated in terms of its contribution to rural development. The Peruvian case underlines the importance of understanding the rationality of the pre‐existent agrarian system for a successful restructuring of the agrarian economy and society. The contradictions which arose between the State's model and the peasants’ model of agrarian reform, as well as those between different types of peasants, are discussed. Peru's experience is also a reminder that a land reform is not a sufficient condition for rural development unless accompanied by proper price, marketing, credit and investment policies.