Publication

This paper discusses how the US military operations against the Islamic State proposed by President Barack Obama could risk a repeat of the problems that beset the country’s campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. The author suggests that this is because a focus on a military confrontation with the Islamic State by the US would not deal with the reasons for militant jihadist violence in the Middle East and North Africa, which is related to regional grievances over autocratic and sectarian rule and the intolerant interpretation of Islam held by Saudi Arabia.