Rationally Violent Tactics: Evidence from Modern Islamic Fundamentalism

We analyse extremism in the Arabic-Islamic countries and the effects of the radicalization of the confrontation between Islamists and governments in power. We model a two-players game of the political system, where the Islamic party and the army struggle over the division of power. We show that the increase in the Islamists' political activity is associated with various possible outcomes: depending on the support to the Islamists and on the level of radicalism of both players, either the status quo is maintained or an Islamic government is formed or extremist violence erupts.