The emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) triggered many question marks regarding the balance of power in the region, the magnitude of triggered sectarianism by Arab policies, the internal Iraqi conflict after the US invasion in 2003 and the roles played by Iran and the Gulf countries in Iraq.
Analysts almost agree that ISIS represents a contrasting stage in a certain manner to what is known as global jihadism, as it differs from al-Qaeda, the incubator from which it emanated, in its objectives and strategies but also in its management of the appropriated territories, although there are similarities in their resources and their ideology.
ISIS was able to merge former Iraqi generals and former Baath members; as it was able to exploit the sectarian politics of Iraqi former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, by instigating Sunni clans against him and his rule, and allying with Sunni tribes to defeat Iraqi army forces in more than one province.
The influence that ISIS succeeded in gaining has affected many policies of neighboring countries, such as Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Lebanon. Jordan for instance, has taken part of the coalition led by the United States; while Bashar al-Assad took advantage of ISIS’s existence to present himself as the one facing this organization on his own. On the other hand, the role played by Ankara is still ambiguous to a large extent, as some perceive Turkey as reluctant in its fight against ISIS in order to bring down Assad’s regime, while others view that Turkish intelligence services contribute tremendously in data gathering. However, one of the neighboring countries that is hardly coping with the impact of the unrest is Lebanon, a country that is already suffering from a well-established political sectarianism.
The "Islamic state" is able to maintain a presence and existence through its control of civilian areas, which are difficult aerial targets, and through the selling of Iraqi oil on the black market as well as living off ransoms and robberies. ISIS has distinguished itself through the use of excessive cruelty and the exploitation of modern media in its psychological war against its opponents.
The evil that the Islamic State represents is not something that Iraq or the region can take on alone. We face a common threat and it requires a common response.
Obama: This is not America’s fight alone. Above all, the people and governments of the Middle East are rejecting ISIL and standing up for the peace and security that the region deserves
We welcome all contributions to improve security, including by means of training and equipment, in order to push back and defeat ISIL
Our goal is clear: to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy
“Rooting out a cancer like ISIL will not be quick or easy, but I’m confident that we can — and we will — working closely with our allies and our partners,” Obama said.
Opinion Articles
Amid wider regional disintegration, especially the civil war in Syria, those forces of chaos and conflict have grown dominant. The United States is now confronted with a series of bad options.
Opinion Articles
As ISIS militants push further into Iraq, new scrutiny is being given to the threat posed by the growing number of Western fighters who have joined the ranks of the Sunni militant group.
Opinion Articles
What, then are the origins of savagery, if they cannot be ascribed to a single religion or ideology? The first part of an answer may be horribly simple: savagery begets savagery.
Opinion Articles
Along with its surprising military success, the Islamic State group has demonstrated a skill and sophistication with social media previously unseen in extremist groups.
And just as the United States has begun an aggressive air campaign against the militants, Richard A. Stengel, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, believes the United States has no choice but to counter their propaganda with a forceful online response.
Opinion Articles
The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) has been aided by the continuing failure of the US Government to investigate the role of Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 attacks.
While we may not know the future of the Islamic State, it is clear that Baghdadi has steered the organisation back to prominence.
By delinking a ceasefire from a political solution.Whoever seizes the opportunity first the Syrian opposition and those who genuinely support it,or Assad can make it costly for the other to reject it
Opinion Articles
Obama’s approach is praiseworthy for three reasons. First, it combines force and diplomacy. Second, it attaches careful conditions to the type and scope of American military action.
Opinion Articles
Those in this region, like the Israelis, or those in the West who believe they can wall themselves off from the threat are cruelly mistaken.
Opinion Articles
The global response is failing to curb this terrorist strategy. There appears to be little international co-ordination on the release of hostage.
Opinion Articles
With Iraq and Syria ablaze, the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia seems almost an afterthought. But Riyadh will be a crucial, if quixotic, ally as the United States seeks to mobilize Sunni Muslims
Research paper
A new national guard could help bridge Iraq’s sectarian divide. But it must be accompanied by diplomatic efforts to reach out to Sunnis and prevent outside meddling.
Opinion Articles
Defeating IS would involve a long-term, comprehensive strategy. Here is how to do it.
Opinion Articles
The outlines of a US strategy to roll back ISIS in Iraq have become relatively clear, even if success is uncertain. But there is no clarity yet as to the strategy that might defeat ISIS in Syria
Opinion Articles
Therefore, IS could find itself in disarray in the event of Baghdadi's death if it cannot immediately achieve consensus on a successor who can live up to his legacy
Opinion Articles
Saudi Arabia's internal discord and tensions over ISIS can only be understood by grasping the inherent. duality that lies at the core of the Kingdom's doctrinal makeup and its historical origins.
Research paper
Four years after the Arab revolutions of 2011 the hopes that the uprisings kindled seem to have been all but extinguished. Libya, Syria and Iraq present grim variations on the theme of “failed states”
Obama said joint operation centers in Baghdad and northern Iraq will be stood up to better share intelligence and coordinate planning with the Iraqis as they confront the terrorist threat posed by ISI
Amid a clamor of voices calling for Washington to arm the peshmerga, it is important to draw lessons from the recent fighting that highlight the Kurdish military's more pressing needs.
Opinion Articles
Three years ago, it was hard to find anything significant about Syria in books about al-Qaida. Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower, which many consider the definitive history of al-Qaida
Opinion Articles
Saudi Arabia is pushing for Sunni Muslim Middle East countries to set aside differences over political Islam and focus on what it sees as more urgent threats from Iran and Islamic State.
Opinion Articles
It's no secret that countering ISIS messaging requires telling a better story. So why hasn't the U.S. come up with one yet
Opinion Articles
The best line of defense for regional states worried about the threats posed by ISIS -- including unexpected game changers like Ebola -- is to enhance border and port security.
Opinion Articles
Foreign fighters participate in some of ISIS' 'worst acts,' but there isn't one clear explanation on why they join the battle in the first place.
Opinion Articles
America’s clout in the Middle East is waning, but this is not the fruit of an inexorable process divorced from human will
Opinion Articles
The global response is failing to curb this terrorist strategy. There appears to be little international co-ordination on the release of hostage.
Opinion Articles
Senators and Obama’s top officials agree on one thing on the war against the Islamic State -- Congress is unlikely to authorize it, and it’s unlikely to matter.
Opinion Articles
Washington will defeat ISIS by waiting it out as the organization cracks from within.
Opinion Articles
“The more powerful ISIS grows, the more they are useful for the regime"
Opinion Articles
To win hearts and minds in the Middle East, America needs to let local allies do the talking.
Opinion Articles
A month after the White House released a new draft to authorize military force against the Islamic State, the measure hasn't gained support in either chamber or party
Opinion Articles
Judge scored a victory for young jihadi love this week when she issued a preliminary ruling that two teens who had tried to travel to Syria to marry Islamic State fighters committed no cri
Opinion Articles
Washington’s military campaign against ISIS may extend to the terror group’s affiliates in countries such as Libya and Nigeria, the U.S. secretary of defense Ash Carter has said
Opinion Articles
Boko Haram's affiliation with the Islamic State will likely yield more for the Nigerian insurgency's recruiting than any game-changing operational assistance.
Opinion Articles
What's missing in policy discussions about ISIS is a sense of an overarching strategic framework for countering the group in cyberspace.
Opinion Articles
The world of Islamist fighters is deeply fragmented and constantly shifting
Opinion Articles
The bursts of criticism—from those who inveterately oppose any dealing with Iran—of a letter Mr. Obama reportedly sent to the supreme leader of Iran can readily be dismissed for multiple reasons.
Opinion Articles
America is bitterly divided over the threat of Islamic extremism partly because we are now bitterly divided over almost everything
Opinion Articles
There is no place in the world today where chaos is more prevalent and the reestablishment of order more critical than the Middle East. The “great game" between rival great powers may have originated in Central Asia but it found its most intense expression at the "crossroads of empire" in the Middle East. As long as American interests are still engaged the United States cannot desist from playing it.
Opinion Articles
Why the United States can do very little to alter the course of events in the Middle East right now.
Research paper
While Obama’s chosen path may have disappointed more hawkish critics, his speech reflected a stark political reality.
Opinion Articles
One of the Islamic State’s senior commanders reveals exclusive details of the terror group’s origins inside an Iraqi prison – right under the noses of their American jailers. Report by Martin Chulov
Opinion Articles
These shifts are rooted in the emergence of the Islamic State. Ideologically, there is little difference between the Islamic State and other radical Islamic jihadist movements.
Opinion Articles
In attacking Kobani, the Isis leadership wanted to prove that it could still defeat its enemies despite the US airstrikes against it
Opinion Articles
When it comes to destroying the Islamic State in Syria, boots on the ground should be the least of our worries.
Opinion Articles
The beheadings are meant to challenge and intimidate the Western public, but that is only a secondary benefit for ISIL, whose focus remains on defeating enemies in immediate proximity.
Opinion Articles
Whatever your politics, you’re not likely to feel great about America right now
Opinion Articles
As the attention of the world focused on Ukraine and Gaza, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) captured a third of Syria in addition to the quarter of Iraq it had seized in June.
Opinion Articles
"Given the disparate motives of the various parties, it is unwise for U.S. officials to view the fight against ISIS as a stark conflict between good and evil."
Opinion Articles
It is too early to say that the U.S. strategy against the Islamic State is imploding, but it is scarcely too soon to question whether this is possible.
Opinion Articles
It’s not too soon to state the obvious: At this point, the war against the Islamic State can be seen only as failing.
Opinion Articles
Why Counterterrorism Won’t Stop the Latest Jihadist Threat
Opinion Articles
If you want to understand what's happening in the Middle East today, you need to appreciate one fundamental fact: ISIS is losing its war for the Middle East.
Opinion Articles
Iraq’s government may not be ready to handle what happens when it defeats ISIS
Opinion Articles
Eleven years and billions of dollars later, American troops are once again in Iraq, after having withdrawn in 2011. This time, they better plan on staying for the long haul.
Opinion Articles
How is this strategy working? So far, Libya and the Sinai appear to be the locations with the most promise, though the Islamic State’s presence in these areas should not be overstated
Opinion Articles
Evidence suggests that the Islamic State's power has been declining for months.
Opinion Articles
The brutal jihadist is simply a frontman for many strands of disaffected Iraqi opinion
Opinion Articles
ABOARD THE U.S.S. CARL VINSON, in the Persian Gulf — More than a dozen Navy F/A-18 warplanes roar off this aircraft carrier every day to attack Islamic State targets.
Opinion Articles
Coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria have had clear benefits, but a broader campaign involving more intelligence and targeting assistance on the ground is required
Opinion Articles
A serious alliance against ISIS built on Sunni Arab states and Turkey cannot hold together over the long term without a more forceful U.S. policy toward the Syrian regime.
Opinion Articles
The question about President Obama’s resumption of war in Iraq is not whether it can be justified but where it will lead
Research paper
While Obama’s chosen path may have disappointed more hawkish critics, his speech reflected a stark political reality.
Opinion Articles
In the annals of warfare there have been few conflicts as asymmetric as the United States against the Islamic State, which pits a global superpower at the head of an international coalition
Opinion Articles
ISIL is better equipped than al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) or any other militia or extremist groups the Army faced.
News
The United States has begun training Iraqi army recruits, a central part of the strategy by the U.S.-led coalition that is working with the Iraqi government to retake territory
News
A top US commander warns Caribbean and South American countries are unable to track 100 foreign fighters that could return from Syria
Opinion Articles
Critics of airstrikes over Iraq and Syria should give credit where it’s due: US sustained drone strikes are doing the job.
Opinion Articles
Data scientists say Twitter has done much to thwart ISIS, but offer these simple steps to degrade the group and its massive online following
Opinion Articles
After months of trying to unseat al Qaeda on the African continent, the jihadis from Syria have locked arms with Boko Haram.
Opinion Articles
"That is why, at the end of my first week as Secretary of Defense, I traveled to Afghanistan and Kuwait, where I thanked our men and women in uniform for their contributions to important missions.
"Opinion Articles
"How could I go to the Coptic Cathedral to extend my condolences when the Egyptian army hasn't avenged the attacks?" asked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
Opinion Articles
Analysts at the NGA have taken the tradecraft used to spy on Russia and China and turned it on black market oil transports
Opinion Articles
Iran is leading the fight against the Islamic State. Here's what it is using...
Opinion Articles
Three crucial messages should guide America's fight against ISIS.
Opinion Articles
The request by the Iraqi government for U.S. air support may serve as a vindication for American commanders, who had been blindsided by the decision to launch the offensive