Islamic State Rose, Fell and Could Rise Again

Despite its ongoing demise in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State (ISIS) could prove resurgence again in the Middle East. Many factors that enabled ISIS’s ascent to persist and successfully do territorial conquest outside of Iraq and Syria.

ISIS’s three principal functions: as a recruitment agency for militants willing to fight for its caliphate in Iraq and Syria; as a terrorist group mounting bloody attacks against civilians; and as a military organisation seeking to exert territorial control and governance functions. Its ability to recruit in these countries suggests a series of factors that gave rise to a more conducive environment: a demand for a quasi-revolutionary, anti-establishment discourse and practice, especially among young people who blame their relative deprivation on structural injustice.

The levels of ISIS recruitment in a particular country reflect multiple factors: the political and security context; the presence of pre-existing jihadist networks; the level of demand for a quasi-revolutionary, anti-establishment discourse and practice