Disengagement Theory

Disengagement Theory is designed specifically to tackle the perceived terrorist threat against the West from Islamic extremism. Intriguingly, it was developed not by a specialist in the Middle East or in Islam, but by Peter Samuels, a Cold War Historian from Cambridge.

Samuels at first accepted the received wisdom that the battle against Al Qaeda was unlike any previous conflict, including the Cold War, in that it did not involve any state players. Then he began to consider the fact that both the current tension and that of the Cold War had an ideological foundation, and from there he quickly saw the similarities and a potential way forward.

One of the key elements in the emergence of Al Qaeda was the continuing presence of US troops on “holy” soil in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War. Although Saudi Arabia had invited this presence, Samuels suggests that it was no less an affront to the “Islamic Nation” than the presence of American troops in Poland during the Cold War would have been to the Soviet Union. Of course, you might argue that American troops would never have been welcomed into Poland in the first place and if they’d invaded, war would have ensued, to which Samuels response would be – exactly!

Samuels has argued, as have many others, that from the perspective of Muslims, their culture and religion seem to be under siege from Western philosophy and popular culture. The secret to mollifying the Islamic threat, then, is to disengage from the Islamic world, to avoid any military presence in Islamic countries, to avoid pronouncements or policy decisions that might seem interventionist.

Of course, the Islamic world is still predominantly a geographical entity so such a policy is easier to carry out than might be first thought. However, Samuels is not blind to the fact that there are sizeable minority Muslim populations across the Western world, and it’s with regard to these that his message becomes quite uncompromising.

Firstly, Samuels suggests that, even with disengagement, the threat from “home grown” Islamic terrorists will persist for decades after it has been neutralized elsewhere. As a result, Muslims living in the West would have to be the focus of intelligence operations for years to come.

He also suggests that the flip side to disengagement from the Islamic world is that Islamic communities in the West should be left in no doubt that they are in the West and are therefore expected to adopt Western practices and assimilate. This might be Samuels’ Cold War thinking coming through, but he argues that the nature of disengagement theory is to contain any potential sources of conflict and that this can only be achieved by creating a clearly defined cultural border between the Islamic world and the West.

(coming next - locking down the left field)