The Dark Side of the Crescent Moon: The Islamization of Europe and Its Impact on American/Russian Relations, by Georgy Gounev

Abstract

Reviewed by: Simeon Mitropolitski, University of OttawaIn his latest book, Georgy Gounev, an expert in comparative Russian and American history, explores the possibility of a new American-Russian alliance against the rising global threat of radical Islam. The Dark Side of the Crescent Moon describes the obstacles that stand in the way of such an alliance and suggests ways to overcome them. Gounev divides his book thematically into two main parts. In one, the author tells the story of the rise of radical Islam and its search for global political domination. Specific chapters are dedicated to the process of Islamization in Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union and Russia. In the other, the author focuses on the evolution of American-Russian relations from the Second World War through the Cold War to the post-Cold War era. Gounev discusses the highs and lows of these relations both within and outside of the context of the Islamic world.In relation to the threat of radical Islam, the author implicitly employs Samuel Huntington's vision of the clash of civilizations, emphasizing demographic and immigration factors as key avenues through which Muslim populations have gradually increased in size and influence in the most economically advanced Western countries. The aggressiveness of radical Islam, whose goal, Gounev claims, is to occupy the space left vacant by Christianity, is coupled with tolerance within Western countries, enabling radical Islam to function with impunity. Professing political correctness and multiculturalism, these countries encourage Muslim migrants and recent converts to remain isolated from host societies. Even after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, Western societies did not dare to name radical Islam by its proper name, preferring euphemisms such as extremism and on terror. Not least, radical leftist groups in Europe and the United States give moral credit to radicalized Muslims, seeing in them and their anti-Western hatred a logical consequence of Western imperialism and global inequalities.American-Russian relations during the last decades have been marked by periods of cooperation and confrontation. More often than not, the behaviour of Muslim countries and issues related to some of these countries have constituted important factors in the dynamics of these bilateral relations. Gounev provides historical examples--post-Second World War Arab nationalism, the Arab-Israeli wars, the special relationship between Washington and Saudi Arabia, the Iranian revolution, and the Soviet war in Afghanistan. In the global confrontation of the Cold War, both superpowers stimulated political radicalism among their client states and both underestimated the threat of this radicalism for their own future security.Following the framework of realist theory in international relations, both pre-structural and structural, Gounev claims that the United States and Russia, as countries subject to planned aggression, share common interests. …