1. The point of the Social Movement Theory is to explain the actions of people and their success. The SMT analyzes political opportunities, the management of resources, and discursive opportunities. The SMT essentially analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of a country.
2. I think that the SMT can be applied to anything-including the America Civil Rights movement. The SMT is broad enough to be applicable to any country and situation. The SMT can be seen as an analytical framework, so it simply analyzes the situation and attempts to explain it.
3. The SMT can explain the Islamist movements, and their success, happening in MENA in all aspects. ISIS is a radical Islamist movement currently happening in the MENA area. The goal of ISIS is to have a homeland. With the SMT in place, it is easy to describe the movement. Analyzing ISIS through the SMT, you can (attempt) to delve into the minds of ISIS. You can look at their strength and the use of the resources they have. It is also easy to look at the actors to help explain the actions of ISIS.
I really like how you pointed out that the SMT is basically just analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of a state... I think that is a really basic concept that I did not realize at first until I delved deeper into the definition.
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