Publication

This paper reports on the US-led coalition against ISIS and the challenges it faces. The author cautions against underestimating the military capabilities of ISIS which she calls an adaptive and resilient enemy. To illustrate her point, she describes the terrorist organization's military tactics and operations in the desert, cities and suburban areas in Iraq and Syria. She argues that the only way to defeat ISIS is to guarantee a ground force that will occupy, secure, and rebuild Syria, and Iraq to a lesser extent. Dealing major blows to ISIS while leaving the Iraqi and Syrian states unattended, she warns, will spawn dangerous contingencies in the mid-term.