The Violence Pendulum

In the mid 1990s, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was one of the most active terrorist groups in Egypt. By 2002, the organization renounced armed action, dismantled its military wing, and published volumes of ideological revisions. What explains such a drastic transformation? The Violence Pendulum answers this question, and provides a dynamic theoretical framework that explains why Islamist organizations move towards or away from violence. Matesan applies this theory
to four Islamist groups in Egypt and in Indonesia, tracing their evolution, and showing how specific historical junctures can be understood within a broader framework of tactical change.